Abstract
The genus Psychrobacter contains environmental, psychrophilic and halotolerant gram-negative bacteria considered rare opportunistic pathogens in humans. Metagenomics was performed on the cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) of a pediatric patient with meningitis. Nucleic acids were extracted, randomly amplified, and sequenced with the 454 GS FLX Titanium next-generation sequencing (NGS) system. Sequencing reads were assembled, and potential virulence genes were predicted. Phylogenomic and phylogenetic studies were performed. Psychrobacter sp. 310 was identified, and several virulence genes characteristic of pathogenic bacteria were found. The phylogenomic study and 16S rRNA gene phylogenetic analysis showed that the closest relative of Psychrobacter sp. 310 was Psychrobacter sanguinis. To our knowledge, this is the first report of a meningitis case associated with Psychrobacter sp. identified by NGS metagenomics in CSF from a pediatric patient. The metagenomic strategy based on NGS was a powerful tool to identify a rare unknown pathogen in a clinical case.
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Acknowledgments
We would like to thank Dr. Vidu González-Rodríguez for providing the clinical history and the Genoma de Patógenos staff for their assistance with capillary sequencing. No external funding was received for this work. The findings and conclusions in this report are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official opinion of the Ministry of Health in Mexico.
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Communicated by Jorge Membrillo-Hernández.
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Joanna María, OA., José Miguel, SC., Fabiola, GA. et al. Fatal Psychrobacter sp. infection in a pediatric patient with meningitis identified by metagenomic next-generation sequencing in cerebrospinal fluid. Arch Microbiol 198, 129–135 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-015-1168-2
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00203-015-1168-2