Haemophilus influenzae: using comparative genomics to accurately identify a highly recombinogenic human pathogen.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Haemophilus influenzae is an opportunistic bacterial pathogen that exclusively colonises humans and is associated with both acute and chronic disease. Despite its clinical significance, accurate identification of H. influenzae is a non-trivial endeavour. H. haemolyticus can be misidentified as H. influenzae from clinical specimens using selective culturing methods, reflecting both the shared environmental niche and phenotypic similarities of these species. On the molecular level, frequent genetic exchange amongst Haemophilus spp. has confounded accurate identification of H. influenzae, leading to both false-positive and false-negative results with existing speciation assays.

Results

Whole-genome single-nucleotide polymorphism data from 246 closely related global H

SUBMITTER: Price EP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4551764 | biostudies-literature | 2015 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature