title: Phylogenetic analysis of Bacillus cereus isolates from severe systemic infections using multilocus sequence typing scheme.
abstract: Bacillus cereus strains from cases of severe or lethal systemic infections, including respiratory symptoms cases, were analyzed using multilocus sequence typing scheme of B. cereus MLST database. The isolates were evenly distributed between the two main clades, and 60% of them had allele profiles new to the database. Half of the collection's strains clustered in a lineage neighboring Bacillus anthracis phylogenetic origin. Strains from lethal cases with respiratory symptoms were allocated in both main clades. This is the first report of strains causing respiratory symptoms to be identified as genetically distant from B. anthracis. The phylogenetic location of the presented here strains was compared with all previously submitted to the database isolates from systemic infections, and were found to appear in the same clusters where clinical isolates from other studies had been assigned. It seems that the pathogenic strains are forming clusters on the phylogenetic tree.
authors.affiliation: Department of Bacteriology, Nagoya University Graduate School of Medicine, Aichi, Japan.
authors.forename: Maria
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Vassileva
authors.forename: Keizo
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Torii
authors.forename: Megumi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Oshimoto
authors.forename: Akira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Okamoto
authors.forename: Norio
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Agata
authors.forename: Keiko
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Yamada
authors.forename: Tadao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Hasegawa
authors.forename: Michio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ohta
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D016863:Bacillaceae Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification / Q000472:pathogenicity; D016470:Bacteremia / Q000382:microbiology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D010802:Phylogeny; D012141:Respiratory Tract Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA