Abstract
Animal venoms are considered sterile sources of antimicrobial compoundswith strong membrane-disrupting activity against multidrug-resistant bacteria. However,venomous bite wound infections are common in developing nations. Investigating theenvenomation organ and venom microbiota offive snake and two spider species, weobserved venom community structures that depend on the host venomous animal spe-cies and evidenced recovery of viable microorganisms from black-necked spitting cobra(Naja nigricollis) and Indian ornamental tarantula (Poecilotheria regalis) venoms. Amongthe bacterial isolates recovered fromN. nigricollis,weidentified two venom-resistant,novel sequence types ofEnterococcus faecaliswhose genomes feature 16 virulencegenes, indicating infectious potential, and 45 additional genes, nearly half of whichimprove bacterial membrane integrity. Ourfindings challenge the dogma of venom ste-rility and indicate an increased primary infection risk in the clinical management of ven-omous animal bite wounds.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 1-16 |
Number of pages | 16 |
Journal | Microbiology spectrum |
Volume | 10 |
Issue number | 3 |
Early online date | 23 May 2022 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 29 Jun 2022 |
Keywords
- drug resistance evolution
- extremophiles
- genome analysis
- microbiome
- multidrug resistance
- venom
- Ecology
- General Immunology and Microbiology
- Cell Biology
- Microbiology (medical)
- Infectious Diseases
- Genetics
- Physiology