Dataset Information

Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing in the investigation of a meningococcal disease outbreak.

ABSTRACT: Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing were used to investigate an outbreak of meningococcal disease in a university in the United Kingdom. The data obtained showed that five distinct Neisseria meningitidis strains belonging to the ET-37 complex were present in the student population during the outbreak. Three of these strains were not associated with invasive disease, and two distinct strains caused invasive disease, including several fatalities. The initial case of the disease cluster was caused by a strain distinct from that responsible for at least two subsequent cases and two cases remote from the university, which were epidemiologically linked to the outbreak. These observations were consistent with pulsed-field gel electrophoresis data, but the sequence data alone were sufficient to resolve the strains involved in the disease cluster. Interpretation of the nucleotide sequence data was more straightforward than interpretation of the fingerprint patterns, and the sequence data provided information on the genetic differences among the isolates.

SUBMITTER: Feavers IM

PROVIDER: S-EPMC85836 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing in the investigation of a meningococcal disease outbreak.

Feavers I M IM Gray S J SJ Urwin R R Russell J E JE Bygraves J A JA Kaczmarski E B EB Maiden M C MC

Journal of clinical microbiology 19991201 12

Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing were used to investigate an outbreak of meningococcal disease in a university in the United Kingdom. The data obtained showed that five distinct Neisseria meningitidis strains belonging to the ET-37 complex were present in the student population during the outbreak. Three of these strains were not associated with invasive disease, and two distinct strains caused invasive disease, including several fatalities. The initial case of the disease ...[more]

PMID: 10565901

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Project description:The MLST scheme currently used for Enterococcus faecium typing was designed in 2002 and is based on putative gene functions and Enterococcus faecalis gene sequences available at that time. As a result, the original MLST scheme does not correspond to the real genetic relatedness of E. faecium strains and often clusters genetically distant strains to the same sequence types (ST). Nevertheless, typing has a significant impact on the subsequent epidemiological conclusions and introduction of appropriate epidemiological measures, thus it is crucial to use a more accurate MLST scheme. Based on the genome analysis of 1,843 E. faecium isolates, a new scheme, consisting of 8 highly discriminative loci, was created in this study. These strains were divided into 421 STs using the new MLST scheme, as opposed to 223 STs assigned by the original MLST scheme. The proposed MLST has a discriminatory power of D = 0.983 (CI95% 0.981 to 0.984), compared to the original scheme's D = 0.919 (CI95% 0.911 to 0.927). Moreover, we identified new clonal complexes with our newly designed MLST scheme. The scheme proposed here is available within the PubMLST database. Although whole genome sequencing availability has increased rapidly, MLST remains an integral part of clinical epidemiology, mainly due to its high standardization and excellent robustness. In this study, we proposed and validated a new MLST scheme for E. faecium, which is based on genome-wide data and thus reflects the tested isolates' more accurate genetic similarity. IMPORTANCE Enterococcus faecium is one of the most important pathogens causing health care associated infections. One of the main reasons for its clinical importance is a rapidly spreading resistance to vancomycin and linezolid, which significantly complicates antibiotic treatment of infections caused by such resistant strains. Monitoring the spread and relationships between resistant strains causing severe conditions represents an important tool for implementing appropriate preventive measures. Therefore, there is an urgent need to establish a robust method enabling strain monitoring and comparison at the local, national, and global level. Unfortunately, the current, extensively used MLST scheme does not reflect the real genetic relatedness between individual strains and thus does not provide sufficient discriminatory power. This can lead directly to incorrect epidemiological measures due to insufficient accuracy and biased results.

Dataset Information

Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing in the investigation of a meningococcal disease outbreak.

Publications

Multilocus sequence typing and antigen gene sequencing in the investigation of a meningococcal disease outbreak.

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