1. Distinct evolutionary patterns of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B disease outbreaks at two universities in the USA
- Author
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Li Hao, Mike Frace, Fang Hu, Sabine Wellnitz, Scott Sammons, Melissa J. Whaley, Lucy A McNamara, Lubomira Andrew, Matthew T. G. Holden, Paul A. Liberator, Annaliesa S. Anderson, Kristen Knipe, Xin Wang, University of St Andrews. School of Medicine, University of St Andrews. Infection and Global Health Division, University of St Andrews. Infection Group, and University of St Andrews. Biomedical Sciences Research Complex
- Subjects
0301 basic medicine ,disease outbreak ,Male ,Microbial Evolution and Epidemiology: Population Genomics ,Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) ,Neisseria meningitidis, Serogroup B ,California ,Disease Outbreaks ,0302 clinical medicine ,RA0421 ,RA0421 Public health. Hygiene. Preventive Medicine ,vaccine ,030212 general & internal medicine ,Clade ,Phylogeny ,Genetics ,Phylogenetic tree ,Outbreak Report ,New Jersey ,General Medicine ,whole genome sequence (WGS) ,serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis ,Female ,QR355 Virology ,Adult ,Adolescent ,Universities ,030106 microbiology ,Virulence ,Single-nucleotide polymorphism ,Meningococcal vaccine ,Biology ,Meningitis, Meningococcal ,Meningococcal disease ,Polymorphism, Single Nucleotide ,Serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis ,Evolution, Molecular ,03 medical and health sciences ,SDG 3 - Good Health and Well-being ,single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) ,Single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) ,medicine ,Humans ,Indel ,Disease outbreak ,QR355 ,Whole genome sequence (WGS) ,multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) ,Outbreak ,DAS ,medicine.disease ,Vaccine - Abstract
L. H., L. A., S. W., P. L. and A. S. A. are current employees of Pfizer, and this work was funded by Pfizer Inc. Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B (MnB) was responsible for two independent meningococcal disease outbreaks at universities in the USA during 2013. The first at University A in New Jersey included nine confirmed cases reported between March 2013 and March 2014. The second outbreak occurred at University B in California, with four confirmed cases during November 2013. The public health response to these outbreaks included the approval and deployment of a serogroup B meningococcal vaccine that was not yet licensed in the USA. This study investigated the use of whole-genome sequencing(WGS) to examine the genetic profile of the disease-causing outbreak isolates at each university. Comparative WGS revealed differences in evolutionary patterns between the two disease outbreaks. The University A outbreak isolates were very closely related, with differences primarily attributed to single nucleotide polymorphisms/insertion-deletion (SNP/indel) events. In contrast, the University B outbreak isolates segregated into two phylogenetic clades, differing in large part due to recombination events covering extensive regions (>30 kb) of the genome including virulence factors. This high-resolution comparison of two meningococcal disease outbreaks further demonstrates the genetic complexity of meningococcal bacteria as related to evolution and disease virulence. Publisher PDF
- Published
- 2018