title: Multi-locus sequence typing: a tool for global epidemiology.
abstract: The characterization of pathogenic isolates plays a pivotal role in the epidemiology of infectious diseases, generating the information necessary for identifying, tracking, and intervening against disease outbreaks. In 1998 multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) was proposed as a nucleotide sequence-based approach that could be applied to many bacterial pathogens. It combined developments in high-throughput sequencing and bioinformatics with established population genetics techniques to provide a portable, reproducible, and scalable typing system that reflected the population and evolutionary biology of bacterial pathogens. MLST schemes have been developed for a variety of procaryotic and eucaryotic pathogens and the data generated have contributed to both epidemiological surveillance and fundamental studies of pathogen biology.
authors.affiliation: Peter Medawar Building for Pathogen Research and Department of Zoology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, OX1 3SY, Oxford, UK.
authors.forename: Rachel
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Urwin
authors.forename: Martin C J
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Maiden
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000472:pathogenicity; D001424:Bacterial Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods*