Mohamed, S. I. | bioRxiv Science

bioRxiv2026

Evolution of multidrug-resistant IncC plasmids in the seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor lineage between 1979 and 2024

IncC plasmids played an important role in driving antimicrobial drug resistance development in the seventh pandemic Vibrio cholerae O1 El Tor (7PET) lineage during the 1970s and these have begun to re-emerge. In this study, we investigated a comprehensive dataset for 28 complete IncC plasmids -- including 17 newly sequenced plasmid genomes -- from 7PET isolates collected on various continents between 1979 and 2024 and distributed across the global phylogenetic tree for 7PET isolates. IncC type 2 predominated among the V. cholerae plasmids studied, and five new core genome sequence types (cgSTs) were identified. The antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs) were arranged in islands inserted at specific hotspots within the common IncC backbone and were significantly associated with IncC types or islands. The IncC plasmid backbone has remained stable over the last 50 years, but the ARGs and their associated genomic islands displayed remarkable diversity, underscoring the complex evolution patterns of the 7PET lineage of V. cholerae and its considerable adaptability under selective pressure.

microbiology↗

bioRxiv2022

Epitopes- Based Vaccine Design Against Foot and Mouth Disease SAT2 Serotype from Sudanese Isolate by Using Immunoinformatic Approaches

Foot and mouth disease (FMD) has been endemic in Sudan for decades and causes continuous outbreaks that have a direct negative impact on the animal population and prevent the exportation of animals from the country. The high diversity of FMD serotypes, especially SAT2 and A serotypes, hinders the development of effective vaccines since the most important component of vaccination is the degree of cross-protection provided by the vaccine against currently circulating field viruses. An immunoinformatic approach was utilized to predict a multi-epitope peptide vaccine design against the SAT2 serotype from a Sudanese isolate targeting virus capsid region P1. The virus capsid region P1 comprises the major immunogenic epitopes that confer protection against the FMD virus. Two predicted T-cell epitopes were identified that showed high binding affinity with MHC1 alleles (VQRSRQSTL and YHAEWDTGL) and high conservation with SAT2 African serotypes and were located within the VP1 and VP3 proteins, respectively. Only one epitope was predicted for B cells (LPATPEDAAH), which scored above the threshold in Bepipred linear epitope, Emini surface accessibility, and Kolaskar and Tongaonkar antigenicity and is located in VP3 protein. Molecular docking of the peptides (VQRSRQSTL and YHAEWDTGL) with the MHC1 allele showed satisfactory interaction with the binding sites of BoLA-HD6 using UCSF chimera 1.13.1 software. The peptide VQRSRQSTL showed remarkable hydrophobic interaction with the BoLA-HD6 allele, which was superior to the other peptides. This study is the first to propose a peptide vaccine against FMD SAT2 serotypes from a Sudanese isolate.

bioinformatics↗