Unraveling Coinfection Dynamics into 100 Whole Genome of Diarrheal Pathogens: A Genome-to-Systems Biology Approach withPlesiomonas shigelloides

Abstract

AbstractDiarrhea is the second leading cause of mortality among infants under the age of five. One of the main causes of this disease is multipathogenic infections, which can make the conditions of patients even worse.Plesiomonas shigelloides(P. shigelloides) is one of the pathogenic bacteria that contributes to the pathophysiology of diarrhea and may be implicated in coinfection with other diarrheal pathogens. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the hypothetical proteins to explore the genetic insights ofP. shigelloidesand its relationships with common diarrheal diseases. For this reason, we used 16S rRNA sequencing together with several biochemical tests to identify the bacteria that we isolated from diarrheal patients (8 years). Afterwards, the whole genome ofP. shigelloideswas sequenced, assembled and annotated in order to obtain the genomic insights ofP. shigelloides. In addition, the common virulence genes of ten (10) common diarrhea-causing bacteria were identified from 100 whole genome sequences. Finally, the system biology approach was applied to predict the coinfection pattern betweenP. shigelloidesand the virulence genes of 10 bacteria. The complete genome sequencing analysis of this bacterium revealed 899 hypothetical proteins from which 33 hypothetical proteins shared the clusters with the 109 virulence genes of 10 distinct diarrheal pathogens, forming a strong interaction based on biological processes, molecular functions, subcellular localization, or pathways. All diarrhea causing bacteria were found to haveP. shigelloidesmicrobial interactions; however,V. choleraeexhibited the strongest relationships, whileC. difficileshowed the weakest. The results of this investigation clearly imply thatP. shigelloidesshares a coinfection pattern with other bacteria that cause diarrhea. Finally, the findings from the complete genome provide new avenues for researchers to pursue their investigation of the pathophysiology of diarrhea.