title: The characteristics of ubiquitous and unique Leptospira strains from the collection of Russian centre for leptospirosis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Leptospira, the causal agent of leptospirosis, has been isolated from the environment, patients, and wide spectrum of animals in Russia. However, the genetic diversity of Leptospira in natural and anthropurgic foci was not clearly defined.
  
  
  METHODS
  The recent MLST scheme was used for the analysis of seven pathogenic species. 454 pyrosequencing technology was the base of the whole genome sequencing (WGS).
  
  
  RESULTS
  The most wide spread and prevalent Leptospira species in Russia were L. interrogans, L. kirschneri, and L. borgpetersenii. Five STs, common for Russian strains: 37, 17, 199, 110, and 146, were identified as having a longtime and ubiquitous distribution in various geographic areas. Unexpected properties were revealed for the environmental Leptospira strain Bairam-Ali. WGS of this strain genome suggested that it combined the features of the pathogenic and nonpathogenic strains and may be a reservoir of the natural resistance genes. Results of the comparative analysis of rrs and rpoB genes and MLST loci for different Leptospira species strains and phenotypic and serological properties of the strain Bairam-Ali suggested that it represented separate Leptospira species.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Thus, the natural and anthropurgic foci supported ubiquitous Leptospira species and the pool of genes important for bacterial adaptivity to various conditions.
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Olga L
authors.initials: OL
authors.lastname: Voronina
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Marina S
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Kunda
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Ekaterina I
authors.initials: EI
authors.lastname: Aksenova
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Natalia N
authors.initials: NN
authors.lastname: Ryzhova
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Andrey N
authors.initials: AN
authors.lastname: Semenov
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Evgeny M
authors.initials: EM
authors.lastname: Petrov
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Lubov V
authors.initials: LV
authors.lastname: Didenko
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Vladimir G
authors.initials: VG
authors.lastname: Lunin
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Yuliya V
authors.initials: YV
authors.lastname: Ananyina
authors.affiliation: N.F. Gamaleya Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Ministry of Health of Russia, Gamaleya Street 18, Moscow 123098, Russia.
authors.forename: Alexandr L
authors.initials: AL
authors.lastname: Gintsburg
mesh_terms: D056426:Genetic Loci; D016680:Genome, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005838:Genotype; D007919:Leptospira / Q000235:genetics* / Q000648:ultrastructure; D007922:Leptospirosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010641:Phenotype; D010802:Phylogeny; D012426:Russia; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA