Understanding drivers of phylogenetic clustering and terminal branch lengths distribution in epidemics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis.

ABSTRACT: Detecting factors associated with transmission is important to understand disease epidemics, and to design effective public health measures. Clustering and terminal branch lengths (TBL) analyses are commonly applied to genomic data sets of Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) to identify sub-populations with increased transmission. Here, I used a simulation-based approach to investigate what epidemiological processes influence the results of clustering and TBL analyses, and whether differences in transmission can be detected with these methods. I simulated MTB epidemics with different dynamics (latency, infectious period, transmission rate, basic reproductive number R0, sampling proportion, sampling period, and molecular clock), and found that all considered factors, except for the leng

SUBMITTER: Menardo F 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9239681 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature