WGS CHARACTERIZATION OF ENTEROCOCCUS FAECALIS H1041 ISOLATED FROM THE TRADITIONAL BULGARIAN GREEN CHEESE

Abstract

In this study, Enterococcus faecalis H1041 which was isolated from the traditional Bulgarian green cheese was characterized in depth by a whole-genome sequencing performed on the Illumina HiSeq platform using 2 x 150 bases paired-end reads mode. The bioinformatic analysis performed only with free online tools revealed that the strain resembles other cheese-born E. faecalis strains by its antibiotics’ resistances and virulence genotype, thus its presence within the green cheese should not be considered as a health risk. Only two antibiotic resistance genetic determinants were found, but they both carry mutations, and probably are not functional. Furthermore, 18 virulence factor genetic determinants were found, but only 6 of them possessed 100% identities with the canonical sequences, and being more or less intrinsic for the Enterococcus genus. None of them were found on contigs that contain sequences with known plasmid origin of replication. Enterolysin A gene was also detected which most probably plays role in ripening process of the Bulgarian green cheese.