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Volume 4, Issue 4

Distinct evolutionary patterns of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B disease outbreaks at two universities in the USA Open Access

Abstract

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.

  • Received:
  • Accepted:
  • Published Online:
Keyword(s): disease outbreak , multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) , serogroup B Neisseria meningitidis , single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) , vaccine and whole genome sequence (WGS)
© 2018
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2018-04-04
2024-04-19
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Distinct evolutionary patterns of Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B disease outbreaks at two universities in the USA
M Gen 4, e000155 (2018); https://doi.org/10.1099/mgen.0.000155
/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000155
/content/journal/mgen/10.1099/mgen.0.000155
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