Recombination blurs phylogenetic groups routine assignment in Escherichia coli: setting the record straight

The characterization of population structures plays a main role for understanding outbreaks and the dynamics of bacterial spreading. In Escherichia coli, the widely used combination of multiplex-PCR scheme together with goeBURST has some limitations. The purpose of this study is to show that the com...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:PloS one 2014-08, Vol.9 (8), p.e105395-e105395
Main Authors: Turrientes, María-Carmen, González-Alba, José-María, del Campo, Rosa, Baquero, María-Rosario, Cantón, Rafael, Baquero, Fernando, Galán, Juan Carlos
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Analysis
Bacteria
Bayes Theorem
Biology and Life Sciences
Cladistic analysis
Cloning
Coliforms
Drug resistance
E coli
Epidemiology
Escherichia coli
Escherichia coli - genetics
Evolution
Evolution, Molecular
Founder Effect
Gene sequencing
Genes
Genes, Bacterial
Genomes
Genomics
Genotypes
Medicine and Health Sciences
Models, Genetic
Multilocus Sequence Typing
Multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction
Multiplexing
Mutation
Outbreaks
Ovis aries
Phylogenetics
Phylogeny
Population
Population structure
Recombination
Recombination, Genetic
Sheep
Strains (organisms)
Surveillance
Trajectories
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Summary:The characterization of population structures plays a main role for understanding outbreaks and the dynamics of bacterial spreading. In Escherichia coli, the widely used combination of multiplex-PCR scheme together with goeBURST has some limitations. The purpose of this study is to show that the combination of different phylogenetic approaches based on concatenated sequences of MLST genes results in a more precise assignment of E. coli phylogenetic groups, complete understanding of population structure and reconstruction of ancestral clones. A collection of 80 Escherichia coli strains of different origins was analyzed following the Clermont and Doumith's multiplex-PCR schemes. Doumith's multiplex-PCR showed only 1.7% of misassignment, whereas Clermont's-2000 protocol reached 14.0%, although the discrepancies reached 30% and 38.7% respectively when recombinant C, F and E phylogroups were considered. Therefore, correct phylogroup attribution is highly variable and depends on the clonal composition of the sample. As far as population structure of these E. coli strains, including 48 E. coli genomes from GenBank, goeBURST provides a quite dispersed population structure; whereas NeighborNet approach reveals a complex population structure. MLST-based eBURST can infer different founder genotypes, for instance ST23/ST88 could be detected as the founder genotypes for STC23; however, phylogenetic reconstructions might suggest ST410 as the ancestor clone and several evolutionary trajectories with different founders. To improve our routine understanding of E. coli molecular epidemiology, we propose a strategy based on three successive steps; first, to discriminate three main groups A/B1/C, D/F/E and B2 following Doumith's protocol; second, visualization of population structure based on MLST genes according to goeBURST, using NeighborNet to establish more complex relationships among STs; and third, to perform, a cost-free characterization of evolutionary trajectories in variants emerging along the clonal expansion using parsimony methods of phylogenetic analysis.
ISSN:1932-6203
1932-6203
DOI:10.1371/journal.pone.0105395