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Whether cross-infection of respiratory pathogens between patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis occurs is debated. Investigation with traditional microbiological culture risks simplifying the lung microbiome. We demonstrate the use of culture-independent Multilocus sequence typing to screen for Haemophilus influenzae strain types in a cohort of twenty-eight patients with non-cystic fibrosis bronchiectasis., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper). CW received salary support from the Wellcome Trust ISSF grant., (Copyright © 2024. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

The genotyping of pathogens within cystic fibrosis cohorts is an important process, enabling the detection of transmissible and clinically-important strains. Traditionally this has been via culture-dependent processes. However, culture-independent investigation of respiratory samples is becoming more common, with such approaches highlighting the limitations of culture-based methods. In this study we describe the culture-independent application of multilocus sequence typing (MLST) for Pseudomonas aeruginosa, performed on DNA extracted from the sputa of cystic fibrosis patients. We compare the output to conventional culture-dependent MLST applied to the same samples and demonstrate high concordance. Culture-independent MLST enabled genotyping of culture-negative samples in patients from whom P. aeruginosa was intermittently isolated, and revealed the hidden presence of transmissible strains. Culture-independent MLST is also capable of highlighting samples containing multiple strains, albeit inconsistently. We conclude that culture-independent MLST can be a useful genotyping tool for screening cohorts and identifying patients that warrant further detailed investigation., (Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)