The Shigella genus includes serious foodborne disease etiologic agents, with 4 species and 54 serotypes. Identification at species and serotype levels is a crucial task in microbiological laboratories. Nevertheless, the genetic similarity between Shigella spp. and Escherichia coli challenges the correct identification and serotyping of Shigella spp., with subsequent negative repercussions on surveillance, epidemiological investigations, and selection of appropriate treatments. For this purpose, multiple techniques have been developed historically ranging from phenotype-based methods and single or multilocus molecular techniques to whole-genome sequencing (WGS). To facilitate the selection of the most relevant method, we herein provide a global overview of historical and emerging identification and serotyping techniques with a particular focus on the WGS-based approaches. This review highlights the excellent discriminatory power of WGS to more accurately elucidate the epidemiology of Shigella spp., disclose novel promising genomic targets for surveillance methods, and validate previous well-established methods.

该痢疾杆菌属包括严重的食源性疾病的病原体，有4种和54个血清型。在微生物实验室中，物种和血清型水平的鉴定是一项至关重要的任务。然而，志贺氏菌属之间的遗传相似性。和大肠杆菌挑战志贺氏菌的正确鉴定和血清分型spp.，随后对监测、流行病学调查和适当治疗的选择产生负面影响。为此，历史上已经开发了多种技术，从基于表型的方法和单位点或多位点分子技术到全基因组测序 (WGS)。为了便于选择最相关的方法，我们在此提供了历史和新兴识别和血清分型技术的全球概览，特别关注基于 WGS 的方法。这篇综述强调了 WGS 出色的鉴别能力，可以更准确地阐明志贺氏菌属的流行病学，揭示用于监测方法的新的有希望的基因组目标，并验证以前完善的方法。