Transient Darwinian selection in Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A during 450 years of global spread of enteric fever.

ABSTRACT: Multiple epidemic diseases have been designated as emerging or reemerging because the numbers of clinical cases have increased. Emerging diseases are often suspected to be driven by increased virulence or fitness, possibly associated with the gain of novel genes or mutations. However, the time period over which humans have been afflicted by such diseases is only known for very few bacterial pathogens, and the evidence for recently increased virulence or fitness is scanty. Has Darwinian (diversifying) selection at the genomic level recently driven microevolution within bacterial pathogens of humans? Salmonella enterica serovar Paratyphi A is a major cause of enteric fever, with a microbiological history dating to 1898. We identified seven modern lineages among 149 genomes on the basis of 4,

SUBMITTER: Zhou Z 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4143038 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature