title: Multilocus sequence typing analysis of Cronobacter spp. isolated from China.
abstract: Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) has proven to be an effective approach for the subtyping isolates of the Cronobacter genus and to exhibit a high level of discrimination between isolates. In this study, 151 Cronobacter strains were isolated from different sources and provinces across China from 2010 to 2012 and analyzed by MLST. Their sequence type profiles were compared with strains from other countries which were widely geographically and temporally distributed. Out of 151 strains in this study, the majority of strains were Cronobacter sakazakii (70.9 %), C. malonaticus (15.9 %), C. dublinensis (10.6 %), C. turicensis (2.0 %), and C. muytjensii (0.7 %). The strains were divided into 85 sequence types (STs), among which only 17 had previously been reported in other countries. The 85 identified STs for the Cronobacter genus were grouped into 14 clonal complexes and 47 singletons according to eBURST algorithm. The Cronobacter isolated from China showed a high diversity when they were subtyped using the MLST method. When compared to the Cronobacter PubMLST database, some sequence types of strains cultured from food and/or water in this study were also the same with strains isolated from patients in other countries as reported previously. This result showed the potential hazard of strains contaminating water and weaning food from China.
authors.affiliation: National Institute for Communicable Disease Control and Prevention and State Key Laboratory for Infectious Disease Prevention and Control, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China.
authors.forename: Jing-Hua
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Cui
authors.forename: Xiao-Li
authors.initials: XL
authors.lastname: Du
authors.forename: Rong-Jie
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Wei
authors.forename: Hai-Jian
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Zhou
authors.forename: Wei
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Li
authors.forename: Stephen
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Forsythe
authors.forename: Zhi-Gang
authors.initials: ZG
authors.lastname: Cui
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001483:Base Sequence; D002681:China; D059126:Cronobacter / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D060766:Drinking Water / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing / Q000379:methods*; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D060766:Drinking Water