Rapid Sequence‐Based Identification of Gonococcal Transmission Clusters in a Large Metropolitan Area

Abstract

In large metropolitan areas, which typically have the highest rates of gonorrhea, the identification of chains of transmission by use of partner notification is problematic, and there is an increasing interest in applying molecular approaches, which would require new discriminatory high-throughput procedures for recognizing clusters of indistinguishable gonococci, procedures that identify local chains of transmission. Sequencing of internal fragments of 2 highly polymorphic loci, from 436 isolates recovered in London during a 3-month period, identified clusters of antibiotic-resistant and antibiotic-susceptible isolates with indistinguishable genotypes, the vast majority of which were also identical or closely related by other methods, and defined groups of individuals who typically had similar demographic characteristics. This discriminatory sequence-based approach produces unambiguous data that easily can be compared via the Internet and appears to be suitable for the identification of linked cases of gonorrhea and the timely identification of transmission of antibiotic-resistant strains, even within large cities.

Genotyping of two Neisseria gonorrhoeae fluroquinolone-resistant strains in the Brazilian Amazon Region

“…To further characterise the isolates of this study, N. gonorrhoeae multi-antigen sequence typing (NG-MAST) was performed as described earlier by Martin et al (2004). Briefly, internal fragments of the por (737 bp) and tbpB (553 bp) genes were PCR-amplified and sequenced in both directions as described for gyrA and parC genes.…”

Draft Genome Sequence of Neisseria gonorrhoeae Strain NG_869 with Penicillin, Tetracycline and Ciprofloxacin Resistance Determinants Isolated from Malaysia

“…Mutations in the A subunit of DNA gyrase and ParC subunit of topoisomerase IV which confer resistance to ciprofloxacin were present whereby GyrA possessed the double mutations of Asp-95-to-Ala and Ser-91-to-Phe whilst an Asp-86-Asn mutation was found in ParC [15]. Multilocus sequence typing [16] and N. gonorrhoeae multi-antigen sequence typing [17] revealed that the isolate belonged to ST1587 and ST2575, respectively. To the best of our knowledge, both allelic profiles have not been reported for gonococcal isolates to date.…”

Modern aspects of epidemiological surveillance of gonococcal infection spread

“…Одним из известных и признанных методов мо-лекулярного типирования N. gonorrhoeae является метод NG-MAST-типирования (Neisseria gonorrhoeae-multi-antigen-sequence-typing), основанный на секвенировании фрагментов двух генов N. gonorrhoeae -porB гена, кодирующего белок поринового канала, и tbpB гена, кодирующего трансферрин-свя-зывающий белок [95]. В результате применения ме-тода каждому штамму гонококка присваивается свой индивидуальный номер -сиквенс-тип, кото-рый является уникальной характеристикой штамма.…”

“…-об использовании метода NG-MAST для по-лучения генетической характеристики штаммов, ре-зистентных к антимикробным препаратам [103][104][105][106].…”