OBJECTIVES Incompatibility group N (IncN) plasmids have been associated with the dissemination of antimicrobial resistance and are a major vehicle for the spread of bla(VIM-1) in humans and bla(CTX-M-1) in animals. A plasmid multilocus sequence typing (pMLST) scheme was developed for rapid categorization of IncN plasmids. METHODS Twelve fully sequenced IncN plasmids available at GenBank were ...

Because the lack of typing tools for Cyclospora cayetanensis has hampered outbreak investigations, we sequenced its genome and developed a genotyping tool. We observed 2 to 10 geographically segregated sequence types at each of 5 selected loci. This new tool could be useful for case linkage and infection/contamination source tracking.

The gram-negative bacterium Campylobacter jejuni has extensive reservoirs in livestock and the environment and is a frequent cause of gastroenteritis in humans. To date, the lack of (i) methods suitable for population genetic analysis and (ii) a universally accepted nomenclature has hindered studies of the epidemiology and population biology of this organism. Here, a multilocus sequence typing ...

Ten penicillinase-producing Neisseria gonorrhoeae (PPNG) strains isolated from 2000 to 2008 were characterized by multilocus sequence typing, multiantigen sequence typing, and plasmid typing. Sequence analysis showed that 8 strains contained a TEM-1 beta-lactamase gene. However, two other genetically distinct PPNG strains, isolated in 2004 and 2008, each contained a TEM-135 beta-lactamase on di...

The unambiguous characterization of strains of a pathogen is crucial for addressing questions relating to its epidemiology, population and evolutionary biology. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST), which defines strains from the sequences at seven house-keeping loci, has become the method of choice for molecular typing of many bacterial and fungal pathogens (and non-pathogens), and MLST schemes a...

PCR primers targeting loci in the current Burkholderia cepacia complex multilocus sequence typing scheme were redesigned to (i) more reliably amplify these loci from B. cepacia complex species, (ii) amplify these same loci from additional Burkholderia species, and (iii) enable the use of a single primer set per locus for both amplification and DNA sequencing.

Typing strains within a microbial species on the basis of DNA sequences at multiple loci has greatly advanced study of the epidemiology and evolutionary phylogenetics of many bacterial (9, 40, 60, 72) and fungal (26, 68) pathogens. Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) schemes have now been published for five of the opportunistically pathogenic Candida species: C. albicans (6, 7), C. dubliniensis (...

A robust high-throughput multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme for Clostridium difficile was developed and validated using a diverse collection of 50 reference isolates representing 45 different PCR ribotypes and 102 isolates from recent clinical samples. A total of 49 PCR ribotypes were represented overall. All isolates were typed by MLST and yielded 40 sequence types (STs). A web-accessibl...

Glycopeptide-resistant Staphylococcus epidermidis (GRSE) strains are of increasing concern in bone and joint infections (BJIs). Using multilocus sequence typing and multilocus variable-number tandem repeat analysis, we show that BJI-associated GRSE strains are genetically diverse but arise from related, multiresistant hospital sequence types (STs), mostly ST2, ST5, and ST23.

A multilocus sequence typing (MLST) scheme has been developed for Enterococcus faecium. Internal fragments from seven housekeeping genes of 123 epidemiologically unlinked isolates from humans and livestock and 16 human-derived isolates from several outbreaks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Australia, and The Netherlands were analyzed. A total of 62 sequence types were detected in vanc...