Basic Info

Bacterial typing method based on nucleic acid sequencing determines the sequence type of the strain through housekeeping gene analysis

More Details

Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) is a precise method for identifying bacterial isolates by sequencing internal fragments of seven house-keeping genes. Each isolate is characterized by a unique combination of seven integers, representing the alleles at these loci. The number of nucleotide differences between alleles is not considered; instead, each sequence is assigned a distinct allele number. This approach is based on the principle that a new allele can arise from a single genetic event, whether it involves a point mutation or a recombinational replacement.

Most bacterial species have enough genetic variation in their house-keeping genes to provide many alleles per locus, allowing billions of distinct allelic profiles to be distinguished. 

The main advantage of MLST is that it provides unambiguous sequence data, which can be easily compared to a large central database via the Internet. This allows for precise characterization of isolates, even when they cannot be cultured from clinical material. allelic profiles can also be obtained from clinical material like CSF or blood through PCR amplification of the seven house-keeping loci.

What's New

Our platform supports MLST typing for the following 26 types of bacteria. Please refer to the PubMLST database for further information.

Vibrio cholerae	Vibrio parahaemolyticus	Escherichia coli	Streptococcus suis
Campylobacter jejuni	Campylobacter coli	Yersinia enterocolitica	Brucella
Klebsiella pneumoniae	Streptococcus pneumoniae	Legionella pneumophila	Cronobacter
Bacillus anthracis	Bacillus cereus	Haemophilus influenzae	Salmonella
Enterococcus faecalis	Enterococcus faecium	Pseudomonas aeruginosa	Bordetella pertussis
Staphylococcus aureus	Clostridium difficile	Neisseria meningitidis
Acinetobacter baumannii	Listeria monocytogenes	Burkholderia pseudomallei

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is noted that Acinetobacter baumannii, Vibrio cholerae, and Escherichia coli have more than one public MLST scheme. Here in TracePatho, the Pasteur MLST scheme for Acinetobacter baumannii and the Achtman MLST scheme for Escherichia coli are used.

The species Mycobacterium tuberculosis and Yersinia pestis are monomorphic and do not have an MLST scheme. The MLST scheme used for species Bacillus anthracis is based on the Bacillus cereus scheme.

Additional Information

Related links:

https://github.com/tseemann/mlst

https://pubmlst.org/

https://github.com/phac-nml/staramr

Literature

Maiden MC et al. 1998. Multilocus sequence typing: a portable approach to the identification of clones within populations of pathogenic microorganisms. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA, 95:3140-3145.

Urwin R & Maiden MC 2003. Multi-locus sequence typing: a tool for global epidemiology. Trends Microbiol, 11:479-487.

Maiden MC 2006, Multilocus Sequence Typing of Bacteria. Annu Rev Microbiol 60:561-588.

Maiden MC et al. 2013. MLST revisited: the gene-by-gene approach to bacterial genomics. Nat Rev Microbiol 11:728-736.

Jolley KA, Bray JE & Maiden MC 2018. Open-access bacterial population genomics: BIGSdb software, the PubMLST.org website and their applications. Wellcome Open Res  3:124