Abstract for the 13th FAOBMB Congress Discovery of Life Processes: From Biomolecules to Systems Biology.

November 2012, Bangkok, Thailand.

DESCRIBING GENETIC DIVERSITY AMONGST INVASIVE STREPTOCOCCUS PNEUMONIAE ISOLATES IN SINGAPORE Jauneikaite E1,2, Jefferies J1,3, Tee N4, Lin R5, Hibberd ML2 and Clarke SC1,3,6.
1 Infectious Disease Epidemiology Group, Academic Unit of Clinical and Experimental Sciences, University of Southampton, UK 2 Infectious Diseases, Genome Institute of Singapore, Singapore 3 Southampton NIHR Respiratory Biomedical Research Unit, UK 4 KK Women and Childrens Hospital, Singapore 3 National Public Health Laboratory, Singapore 6 Health Protection Agency, Microbiology Services, Southampton, UK

Email address: jauneikaitee99@gis.a-star.edu.sg Streptococcus pneumoniae is a major cause of sepsis, meningitis and respiratory disease worldwide. Our aim was to gain an understanding of the diversity of invasive pneumococci from Singapore, where 7-valent pneumococcal vaccine was added to childhood immunization program in 2009. We characterized 250 invasive isolates using serology, MLST and whole genome sequencing (WGS). The age distribution of patients was: children <18 years, n=104, 18-64 years, n=77, >64 years, n=64. The most common serotypes found were 14, 6B, 19A and 3. MLST identified 102 sequence types (STs), 38 of which were previously unreported. Serotypes 3, 6B, 19A, 19F and 23F were the most genetically diverse as indicated by ST. WGS identified a large number of SNPs that were used to construct a phylogeny tree, which supported the MLST findings. WGS further identified 26 diverse genotypes, confirming the high genetic diversity amongst the isolates. In this first whole genome analysis of local strains, we demonstrate the lack of sequence clustering. This diversity offers an opportunity for extensive genetic exchange between pathogenic strains including the possibility of recombination events leading to capsule switching and changes in antibiotic resistance. Future work involves comparing these strains to other worldwide pneumococcal strains and identifying the common features of invasive pneumococci. Keywords: S.pneumoniae, Singapore, MLST, next generation sequencing.