Draft Genome Sequence of a Canine Uropathogenic
Escherichia coli Strain Isolated in New Zealand
Vuong V. H. Le,
a
Ian Bruce,
b
* Patrick J. Biggs,
a,c
Jasna Rakonjac
a
a
School of Fundamental Sciences, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
b
New Zealand Veterinary Pathology Ltd., Palmerston North, New Zealand
cm
Epilab, Infectious Disease Research Centre, School of Veterinary Science, Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand
ABSTRACT Escherichia coli P50 is a canine uropathogenic isolate sampled in the
Wellington region of New Zealand. We report the draft genome sequence of this
isolate, which contains characteristic virulence genes for urinary tract infections and
is predicted to be capable of causing human infections.
U
rinary tract infections (UTIs) affect about 150 million people each year, and
uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) is the major causative agent (1). It was
shown that UPEC isolates obtained from dogs with cystitis are able to invade human
bladder epithelial cells and cause cytotoxicity, which emphasizes the zoonotic risk of
canine UPEC isolates (2). In this report, we present the draft genome sequence of the
isolate UPEC P50, which was isolated from a dog (12-year-old bull terrier) within a
routine UTI diagnosis. This strain was isolated by culturing urine on MacConkey/sheep
blood agar and identified as E. coli based on colony morphology on chromogenic UTI
agar and using a Microbact 12A biochemical identification strip (Oxoid).
The genomic DNA was extracted from the overnight culture in 2xYT medium using
the UltraClean microbial DNA isolation kit (Qiagen). The DNA sample was then sub-
mitted to the Massey Genome Service (Massey University, Palmerston North, New
Zealand) for whole-genome shotgun sequencing using Illumina TruSeq Nano DNA
library preparation and 2 300-base paired-end (PE) v3 sequencing on the Illumina
MiSeq platform. The sequencing run generated 1,469,340 paired-end reads. The raw
reads were trimmed to a quality cutoff value of Q30, and the short-length reads (25
bases by default) were removed using SolexaQA
++
v3.1.7.1 (3). After quality trim-
ming, 1,303,860 paired-end reads with an average length of 200 bases per read
were used for genome assembly, equivalent to 50 coverage for the draft genome.
De novo assembly was performed with SPAdes v3.13.0 in the --careful mode (4). The gaps
in the contigs were filled using GapFiller v1.10 with default parameters (5). Any contigs
having a high identity with the phiX (X174) sequence or Homo sapiens sequences were
removed. The P50 draft genome was then annotated using the NCBI Prokaryotic Genome
Annotation Pipeline (6). The genome assembly metrics were obtained using QUAST v5.0.1
with default parameters (7). Overall, the UPEC P50 draft genome is 5,155,240 bp long with
5,247 genes, and the GC content is 50.41%. There are 246 contigs with an N
50
value of
314,239 bp, and the largest contig has 651,995 bp.
In silico analysis of the draft genome with SerotypeFinder server v2.0 (8), Viru-
lenceFinder server v2.0 (9), and PathogenFinder server v1.1 (10) with default settings
indicated that UPEC P50 has the O2:H1 serotype, possesses at least 10 virulence genes,
including cnf1, ireA, iroN, iss, mchB, mchC, mchF, mcmA, pic, and vat, and has a high
probability (P = 0.936) of causing human infections.
The UPEC P50 strain can be used as a model organism for studying the pathogenesis
of UTIs and the genetics of biofilm formation and as a target for developing antibiotic
Citation Le VVH, Bruce I, Biggs PJ, Rakonjac J.
2019. Draft genome sequence of a canine
uropathogenic Escherichia coli strain isolated
in New Zealand. Microbiol Resour Announc
8:e01665-18. https://doi.org/10.1128/MRA
.01665-18.
Editor Steven R. Gill, University of Rochester
School of Medicine and Dentistry
Copyright © 2019 Le et al. This is an open-
access article distributed under the terms of
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0
International license.
Address correspondence to Jasna Rakonjac,
j.rakonjac@massey.ac.nz.
* Present address: Ian Bruce, AgResearch,
Palmerston North, New Zealand.
Received 10 December 2018
Accepted 1 February 2019
Published 7 March 2019
GENOME SEQUENCES
crossm
Volume 8 Issue 10 e01665-18 mra.asm.org 1