Lineage-specific evolution and gene flow in Listeria monocytogenes are independent of bacteriophages.

ABSTRACT: Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen causing systemic infection with high mortality. To allow efficient tracking of outbreaks a clear definition of the genomic signature of a cluster of related isolates is required, but lineage-specific characteristics call for a more detailed understanding of evolution. In our work, we used core genome MLST (cgMLST) to identify new outbreaks combined to core genome SNP analysis to characterize the population structure and gene flow between lineages. Whilst analysing differences between the four lineages of L. monocytogenes we have detected differences in the recombination rate, and interestingly also divergence in the SNP differences between sub-lineages. In addition, the exchange of core genome variation between the lineages exhibited a distinc

SUBMITTER: Zamudio R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7614921 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature