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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 2004, p. 3675-3680, Vol. 42, No. 8
0095-1137/04/$08.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.42.8.3675-3680.2004
,¶ Scott A. Handley,1,
,¶ Barbara Ellis,2,¶ Judith Chamberlin,1,
,¶ Sofia Romero,3,¶ and Russell Regnery1*,¶
Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases,1 Division of Tuberculosis Elimination, National Center for HIV, STD and TB Prevention, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333,2 Uniformed Services University of the Health Sciences, Bethesda, Maryland 20814-47993
Received 5 November 2003/ Returned for modification 16 December 2003/ Accepted 19 February 2004
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-proteobacterium Bartonella bacilliformis. Distribution of the disease is considered coincident with the distribution of its known vector, the sand fly Lutzomyia verrucarum. Recent epidemics of B. bacilliformis infections associated with atypical symptomatology in nonendemic regions have raised questions regarding the historic and present distribution of this bacterium and the scope of disease that infection causes. Phylogenetic relationships and genomic diversity of 18 B. bacilliformis isolates (10 isolates from a region where Carrion's disease is epidemic, Cuzco, Peru, and 8 isolates from a region where Carrion's disease is endemic, Caraz, Peru) were assessed using genomic data generated by infrequent restriction site PCR and gene sequence analysis of the flagellin gltA and ialB genes. A population genetic analysis of the genomic diversity suggests that what was once considered an epidemic region of Peru did not result from the recent introduction of B. bacilliformis. |
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This extended range for human B. bacilliformis-associated disease suggests one or more possible scenarios of significant public health importance, including the following: (i) B. bacilliformis-associated disease has existed for many years over a much wider range than previously recognized; (ii) in addition to its endemic distribution, B. bacilliformis has a large but less stable distribution that results from multiple, overlapping introductions of the bacterium via frequent migration between endemic regions and regions that are only marginally capable of maintaining the bacterium; and (iii) for incompletely understood reasons, B. bacilliformis has recently emerged from a limited geographic distribution to significantly expand the endemic region (limits to further expansion are likewise incompletely understood). In addition, in areas outside the range of L. verrucarum, the presence of B. bacilliformis-associated disease implies disease transmission by previously unrecognized vector species; this suggests either recent changes in vector competence or previously unrecognized infection cycles (9).
Comparison of genetic variation between B. bacilliformis isolates from the regions traditionally endemic for Carrion's disease in the Caraz region of Peru with those from a recent Carrion's disease epidemic in the Cuzco region should assist in differentiating among the possible etiologic scenarios described above. For example, a stable, wide distribution of B. bacilliformis should yield similar levels of genetic diversity within and between populations, whereas a recent outbreak should be characterized by lesser variation among samples from the outbreak population compared with those isolates obtained from the population in areas where the disease is considered endemic.
Recent studies have used limited gene sequence data to compare new isolates with existing reference isolates (4, 9). We analyzed nucleotide sequence diversity at three loci: a fragment of the citrate synthase gene or gltA (commonly used for Bartonella species phylogenetic analysis), the invasion-associated locus B (ialB), and the flagellin locus. The latter two loci are believed to be associated with pathogenicity in Bartonella and other bacteria.
In addition to limited gene sequence analysis of B. bacilliformis isolates from two different regions, we used a second method for high-resolution genotypic analysis, infrequent restriction endonuclease site PCR (IRS-PCR). This method has been shown to be useful for genomic analyses of various Bartonella species (14). The IRS-PCR method offers the potential to collect large, robust, and information-rich data sets representing restriction endonuclease-cleaved fragments that are sampled from throughout entire bacterial genomes. We compared levels and distributions of diversity at these genetic markers within and between B. bacilliformis populations and assessed any associations between genetic marker data and patient symptomatology.
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FIG. 1. Map of Peru indicating the sampled regions.
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Isolates identified as B. bacilliformis were subjected to IRS-PCR analysis using all four primer pair combinations (A, T, G, and C) as previously described (14). Fluorescently labeled, amplified products were separated on an ABI 310 automated sequencer (Applied Biosystems Inc.), and patterns were subsequently analyzed with the BioNumerics software package version 2.0 (Applied Maths, Kortijk, Belgium). Subsets of the IRS-PCR data were generated independently by two of the authors (T. M. Hambuch and S. A. Handley) with no significant differences in the results.
Data analysis. Measurements of sequence diversity from the three genetic loci and the IRS-PCR patterns were calculated using the ARLEQUIN program version 2.0 (23). Only nonindependent fragments from the IRS-PCR data were analyzed. Fragments were identified as nonindependent from each other if they were polymorphic among the isolates but showed nonrandom association with other fragments within isolates, as implemented by testing for linkage disequilibrium in ARLEQUIN version 2.0. The pairwise comparisons of diversity within and between sites were performed using the method of Kimura (15) and reported as gene diversity (fragment data) or nucleotide diversity (sequence data).
Several population parameter estimates were calculated from the IRS-PCR and sequence data. These included
, Fst, and the mismatch distribution test. These measures are designed to detect if the distribution of genetic variation within a population is different from that of the entire sample, as would be expected in an epidemic; however, they employ different assumptions about numbers and distributions of polymorphism under various circumstances. Multiple tests allowed us to consider several permutations of how much variation existed and how it was distributed.
is a population parameter representing the effective population size and the mutation rate (
= Neµ for a haploid population) and is based on the number of segregating sites and the sample size (27). Measures of the inbreeding coefficient, Fst, were estimated using this same program. The measure Fst compares the amount of variation within one population to the amount of variation present among all samples (27a) and provides a measure of how genetically distinct populations are from each other. The mismatch distribution test was calculated to ascertain if the B. bacilliformis population had undergone a recent demographic expansion. The mismatch distribution test estimates how well the distribution of the observed numbers of differences between pairs of haplotypes matches
. P values associated with the mismatch distribution test use a parametric bootstrap to assess how the data match expectations (23, 27).
Phylogenetic relationships among the B. bacilliformis isolates were inferred from the IRS-PCR data using neighbor-joining methods after applying the Jaccard correlation coefficient to estimate similarities, as instituted in the BioNumerics program version 2.0 (Applied Maths). Bootstrap analysis was performed using 1,000 rounds of resampling with replacement. IRS-PCR data from a Bartonella clarridgeiae isolate were used as an outgroup to root the phylogenetic tree.
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TABLE 1. Summary of patient characteristics corresponding to the isolates used in this studya
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FIG. 2. Summary of IRS-PCR fingerprinting data. The left y axis indicates the number of fragments (open circles) identified for each primer set used for the IRS-PCR analysis (A, T, G, or C extension). The horizontal bar indicates the mean number of fragments. The right y axis indicates the average number of polymorphic bands in each IRS-PCR set of data (darkened circles connected with a dashed line). The analysis in Table 2 was carried out on a combined data set of polymorphic bands only.
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, the inbreeding coefficient Fst, and the mismatch distribution test probabilities for the IRS-PCR data are all presented in Table 2. For each measure reported, the levels of diversity and degree of genetic differentiation within each population were comparable (by gene diversity and
). No evidence of genetic differentiation between populations was detected by the Fst or mismatch distribution test. |
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TABLE 2. Measures of genetic diversity from IRS-PCR dataa
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FIG. 3. Neighbor-joining tree of B. bacilliformis isolates based on IRS-PCR data. Numbers at nodes reflect bootstrap values after 1,000 resampling events (1:10). Ruler across top reflects percent similarity among fragment patterns. Isolate designations correspond to those listed in Table 1. Allelic designations of nucleotide sequences from the flagellin and gltA alleles are mapped onto the IRS-PCR tree. Symptomatology (s/as) refers to the symptoms (s) or lack thereof (a) of the patient from whom the isolate was obtained.
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TABLE 3. Diversity and distribution of diversity of sequence dataa
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While the number of isolates for our two populations of B. bacilliformis was limited, IRS-PCR fragment analysis sampled large numbers (118) of informative genetic sites distributed throughout the B. bacilliformis genome and was appropriate for addressing population-level questions; in fact, theoretical work has shown that a large number of polymorphic loci can be more powerful in the evaluation of population genetic diversity than large numbers of samples (25). Conversely, although specific gene sequence data were available for three B. bacilliformis loci (gltA, flagellin, and ialB), these data provided little information regarding possible genetic factors related to variable pathogenicity. The spectrum of illness caused by B. bacilliformis infection could not be associated with either B. bacilliformis genomic IRS-PCR patterns or sequence data from B. bacilliformis genes, homologs of which are known to be involved in pathogenicity in other bacteria.
All measures of genetic diversity among the samples isolated during the Cuzco outbreak were comparable to those derived from isolates made in the Caraz area, where Carrion's disease was recognized as endemic (Tables 2 and 3). These measures have included considerations of the amounts of diversity (i.e., numbers of haplotypes and alleles), degrees of diversity (pairwise comparisons of the degrees of differentiation among haplotypes and allelic variants), and distributions of diversity (by Fst and the mismatch distribution test). For all measures, using both pan-genomic fragment data and sequence data of three loci, there were no measures that detected significant differences in variation between populations or distinguished one population from the other. Thus, these data clearly do not support the hypothesis that the Cuzco samples represent a single, recent outbreak.
Three possible scenarios could explain the observed results: (i) frequent travel of infected individuals between Cuzco and Caraz; (ii) B. bacilliformis has a larger and more stable distribution than previously recognized and includes a larger spectrum of symptomatic and asymptomatic infections than traditionally recognized; or (iii) B. bacilliformis has invaded neighboring regions in frequent, overlapping "waves" and then has been maintained in those marginal regions, where it has caused occasional periodic epidemics. Temporarily hospitable environmental conditions capable of allowing occasional overlapping invasions into regions where Carrion's disease has not been considered endemic might correspond with changes in weather patterns or possibly with changes in host dynamics (e.g., naive host populations). The several outbreaks of B. bacilliformis-associated disease documented since 1993 might support the latter hypothesis, particularly since in the investigation of at least one of these apparent outbreaks concurrent abnormalities were reported in the weather patterns (16). However, it is difficult to reconcile this hypothesis with the extreme variability in symptoms among infected individuals. Both epidemiological studies in Caraz and Cuzco, in which these isolates were obtained, included surveys of the arthropod vectors. The suspected vector, L. verrucarum, made up 99% of all sand flies collected in the Caraz region, whereas only Lutzomyia peruensis was found in the Cuzco region. The L. peruensis flies were PCR surveyed for the presence of Bartonella, and one example of B. bacilliformis was identified from 104 flies (9). Thus, there is no reason to suspect that sand fly movement might explain our findings. Furthermore, travel of infected individuals directly between Cuzco and Caraz would also be unlikely. Travel from Cuzco or Caraz to the capital city of Lima, for example, happens with some frequency; however, travel between Cuzco and Caraz is unlikely (S. Romero, personal communication).
Variability of symptoms associated with B. bacilliformis isolates exhibiting high genetic diversity and the presence of asymptomatic, infected individuals have been observed many times (1, 5, 6, 9, 16, 17, 20). It remains unclear whether the lack of symptoms in some infected individuals results from infection with less-virulent forms of the bacterium or if host factors might explain these differences. All eight isolates from the Caraz area were from patients that had experienced acute illness (7), while half of the samples from Cuzco were isolated from individuals with atypical or asymptomatic infections (Table 1; Fig. 1) (9). Observations from two epidemics (9, 16) noted that children were primarily affected, and these researchers independently suggested that this might mean that B. bacilliformis was endemic in those regions and that adults had partial immunity.
In conclusion, our population-based study of genome diversity in B. bacilliformis isolates offers further insight into the biology and demography of this important pathogen. We found no evidence for significant genetic differentiation between what has previously been considered a stable, endemic, source population of B. bacilliformis and the B. bacilliformis isolates recovered during an apparent outbreak in an area where the bacterium was not thought to be endemic; both populations were equally diverse. Conversely, these data suggest that the Cuzco epidemic probably represented infections related to a diverse, relatively stable B. bacilliformis population and did not represent a single-source outbreak. These data support the previous observation that significant, observable genotypic variation exists within populations of B. bacilliformis, which may well have significant implications for understanding the natural histories of the related bacterial entities, their suspected arthropod vectors, and perhaps the human diseases they may cause (5). More-extensive population studies of naturally occurring B. bacilliformis are clearly warranted to better understand the significance of the observed genetic variation within populations of B. bacilliformis. In addition, more-detailed consideration of the possible roles of host-pathogen interactions appears necessary, particularly those related to possible host factors (including host immune status), that may be important in determining the manifestations of human Carrion's disease.
Present address: Department Biologie II, Ludwig-Maximilian-Universität Muenchen, 80333 Munich, Germany. ![]()
¶ Present address: Poxvirus Section, Division of Viral and Rickettsial Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, GA 30333. ![]()
Present address: Washington University School of Medicine, Department of Molecular Microbiology, St. Louis, MO 63110. ![]()
Present address: Westat Corporation, Rockville, MD 20850. ![]()
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