Background

Gonorrhea, caused by the bacterium Neisseria gonorrhoeae, is a globally prevalent sexually transmitted infection. The dynamics of gonococcal population biology have been poorly defined due to a lack of resolution in strain typing methods.

Methods

In this study, we assess how the core genome can be used to improve our understanding of gonococcal population structure compared with current typing schemes.

Results

A total of 1668 loci were identified as core to the gonococcal genome. These were organized into a core genome multilocus sequence typing scheme (N gonorrhoeae cgMLST v1.0). A clustering algorithm using a threshold of 400 allelic differences between isolates resolved gonococci into discrete and stable core genome groups, some of which persisted for multiple decades. These groups were associated with antimicrobial genotypes and non-overlapping NG-STAR and NG-MAST sequence types. The MLST-STs were more widely distributed among core genome groups.

Conclusions

Clustering with cgMLST identified globally distributed, persistent, gonococcal lineages improving understanding of the population biology of gonococci and revealing its population structure. These findings have implications for the emergence of antimicrobial resistance in gonococci and how this is associated with lineages, some of which are more predisposed to developing antimicrobial resistance than others.

中文翻译：

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淋病奈瑟菌群体基因组学：利用淋球菌核心基因组改善抗菌药物耐药性监测

 背景

淋病由淋病奈瑟菌引起，是一种全球流行的性传播感染。由于菌株分型方法缺乏分辨率，淋球菌群体生物学的动态尚不清楚。

 方法

在这项研究中，我们评估了与当前分型方案相比如何使用核心基因组来提高我们对淋球菌种群结构的理解。

 结果

总共 1668 个基因座被确定为淋球菌基因组的核心。这些被组织成核心基因组多位点序列分型方案（淋病奈瑟菌 cgMLST v1.0）。使用分离株之间 400 个等位基因差异阈值的聚类算法将淋球菌分解为离散且稳定的核心基因组组，其中一些组持续了数十年。这些组与抗菌基因型和不重叠的 NG-STAR 和 NG-MAST 序列类型相关。 MLST-ST 在核心基因组中分布更广泛。

 结论

使用 cgMLST 进行聚类，确定了全球分布的、持久的淋球菌谱系，提高了对淋球菌种群生物学的理解并揭示了其种群结构。这些发现对于淋球菌抗菌素耐药性的出现以及其与谱系的关系具有影响，其中一些谱系比其他谱系更容易产生抗菌素耐药性。