Phylogenetic incongruence in E. coli O104: understanding the evolutionary relationships of emerging pathogens in the face of homologous recombination.

ABSTRACT: Escherichia coli O104:H4 was identified as an emerging pathogen during the spring and summer of 2011 and was responsible for a widespread outbreak that resulted in the deaths of 50 people and sickened over 4075. Traditional phenotypic and genotypic assays, such as serotyping, pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), and multilocus sequence typing (MLST), permit identification and classification of bacterial pathogens, but cannot accurately resolve relationships among genotypically similar but pathotypically different isolates. To understand the evolutionary origins of E. coli O104:H4, we sequenced two strains isolated in Ontario, Canada. One was epidemiologically linked to the 2011 outbreak, and the second, unrelated isolate, was obtained in 2010. MLST analysis indicated that both isolates

SUBMITTER: Hao W 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3320906 | biostudies-literature | 2012

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature