Genomic analysis of endemic clones of toxigenic and non-toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae in Belarus during and after the major epidemic in 1990s

Steffen Grosse-Kock (1) , Valentina Kolodkina (2) , Edward C Schwalbe (1) , Jochen Blom (3) , Andreas Burkovski (4) , Paul A Hoskisson (5) , Sylvain Brisse (6) , Darren Smith (1) , Iain C Sutcliffe (1) , Leonid Titov (2) , Vartul Sangal (1)

1 University of Northumbria at Newcastle [United Kingdom]
2 Republican Research and Practical Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology [Minsk]
3 JLU - Justus-Liebig-Universität Gießen = Justus Liebig University
4 FAU - Friedrich-Alexander Universität Erlangen-Nürnberg
5 Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences
6 Biodiversité et Epidémiologie des Bactéries pathogènes - Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens

Diphtheria remains a major public health concern with multiple recent outbreaks around the world. Moreover, invasive non-toxigenic strains have emerged globally causing severe infections. A diphtheria epidemic in the former Soviet Union in the 1990s resulted in ~5000 deaths. In this study, we analysed the genome sequences of a collection of 93 C. diphtheriae strains collected during and after this outbreak (1996 - 2014) in a former Soviet State, Belarus to understand the evolutionary dynamics and virulence capacities of these strains.

Keywords: Epidemic; Endemic; Diphtheria; Corynebacterium diphtheriae; Sore throat; Toxigenic; Non-toxigenic; Vaccine; Virulence

Domains: Microbiology and Parasitology

Steffen Grosse-Kock, Valentina Kolodkina, Edward C Schwalbe, Jochen Blom, Andreas Burkovski, et al.. Genomic analysis of endemic clones of toxigenic and non-toxigenic Corynebacterium diphtheriae in Belarus during and after the major epidemic in 1990s. BMC Genomics, 2017, 18 (1), pp.873. ⟨10.1186/s12864-017-4276-3⟩. ⟨pasteur-01649469⟩