Microevolutionary analysis of Clostridium difficile genomes to investigate transmission.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The control of Clostridium difficile infection is a major international healthcare priority, hindered by a limited understanding of transmission epidemiology for these bacteria. However, transmission studies of bacterial pathogens are rapidly being transformed by the advent of next generation sequencing.

Results

Here we sequence whole C. difficile genomes from 486 cases arising over four years in Oxfordshire. We show that we can estimate the times back to common ancestors of bacterial lineages with sufficient resolution to distinguish whether direct transmission is plausible or not. Time depths were inferred using a within-host evolutionary rate that we estimated at 1.4 mutations per genome per year based on serially isolated genomes. The subset of plausible trans

SUBMITTER: Didelot X 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4056369 | biostudies-literature | 2012 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature