Comparative genomic analyses of Chinese serogroup W ST-11 complex Neisseria meningitidis isolates

Bingqing Zhu, Jay Lucidarme, Xilian Bai, Pengbo Guo, Aiyu Zhang, Raymond Borrow, Wanying Gao, Li Xu, Yuan Gao, Zhujun Shao*

*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Although serogroup W ST-11 complex (cc11) (W:cc11) Neisseria meningitidis has been widespread in China over the past ten years, its origin and genetic relatedness has not yet been described. In this study, we described the genetic relatedness and discuss the possible origin of Chinese W:cc11 isolates by comparing their genome sequences with those of other cc11 strains globally. Comparative genomic analysis with geo-temporally diverse cc11 isolates showed that the Chinese W:cc11 isolates exclusively formed two closely related subclusters within a distinct sublineage (proposed as the Chinese-strain sublineage) of lineage 11.1 close to the interface between the Hajj-strain sublineage and the South American-strain sublineage. Several isolates from Africa and Europe were closely related to the Chinese subclusters which were largely segregated from one another among distinct provinces of China. No alleles were identified that were unique to the Chinese isolates as a whole, though each subcluster possessed unique alleles differentiating itself from the other subcluster as well as closely related isolates within the extended sublineage. Three genes differentiated the two subclusters with allele combinations that were each present among the non-Chinese isolates within the wider sublineage. These results indicate that the Chinese W:cc11 isolates formed part of a previously undescribed W:cc11 sublineage that is closely related to, but distinct from, the Hajj-strain sublineage and South American-strain sublineage. The geographical source of the Chinese subclusters was indeterminate based on available data.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)54-60
Number of pages7
JournalJournal of Infection
Volume80
Issue number1
Early online date29 Aug 2019
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Jan 2020

Bibliographical note

Funding Information: This work was funded by the National Natural Scientific Foundation (no. 81602903) from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the People's Republic of China , Sanming Project of Medicine in Shenzhen (No. SZSM201803081 ), grants from the National Key Program for Infectious Disease of China (2017ZX10303405-002, 2018ZX10101002-001).

Open Access: No Open Access licence.

Publisher Copyright: © 2019 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of The British Infection Association.

Citation: Bingqing Zhu, Jay Lucidarme, Xilian Bai, Pengbo Guo, Aiyu Zhang, Ray Borrow, Wanying Gao, Li Xu, Yuan Gao, Zhujun Shao, Comparative genomic analyses of Chinese serogroup W ST-11 complex Neisseria meningitidis isolates, Journal of Infection, Volume 80, Issue 1, 2020, Pages 54-60, ISSN 0163-4453.

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jinf.2019.08.019.

Keywords

  • China
  • Neisseria meningitidis
  • ST-11 complex
  • Serogroup W

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Comparative genomic analyses of Chinese serogroup W ST-11 complex Neisseria meningitidis isolates'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this