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Lineage‐specific evolution and gene flow in Listeria monocytogenes are independent of bacteriophages
Author(s) -
Zamudio Roxana,
Haigh Richard D.,
Ralph Joseph D.,
De Ste Croix Megan,
Tasara Taurai,
Zurfluh Katrin,
Kwun Min Jung,
Millard Andrew D.,
Bentley Stephen D.,
Croucher Nicholas J.,
Stephan Roger,
Oggioni Marco R.
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.15111
Subject(s) - biology , lineage (genetic) , genetics , genome , horizontal gene transfer , listeria monocytogenes , gene , multilocus sequence typing , bacteriophage , listeria , recombination , evolutionary biology , genotype , bacteria , escherichia coli
Summary Listeria monocytogenes is a foodborne pathogen causing systemic infection with high mortality. To allow efficient tracking of outbreaks a clear definition of the genomic signature of a cluster of related isolates is required, but lineage‐specific characteristics call for a more detailed understanding of evolution. In our work, we used core genome MLST (cgMLST) to identify new outbreaks combined to core genome SNP analysis to characterize the population structure and gene flow between lineages. Whilst analysing differences between the four lineages of L . monocytogenes we have detected differences in the recombination rate, and interestingly also divergence in the SNP differences between sub‐lineages. In addition, the exchange of core genome variation between the lineages exhibited a distinct pattern, with lineage III being the best donor for horizontal gene transfer. Whilst attempting to link bacteriophage‐mediated transduction to observed gene transfer, we found an inverse correlation between phage presence in a lineage and the extent of recombination. Irrespective of the profound differences in recombination rates observed between sub‐lineages and lineages, we found that the previously proposed cut‐off of 10 allelic differences in cgMLST can be still considered valid for the definition of a foodborne outbreak cluster of L . monocytogenes .