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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, January 2008, p. 249-254, Vol. 46, No. 1
0095-1137/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.01725-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Genetic Diversity of Burkholderia pseudomallei Isolates in Australia

Menzies School of Health Research, Charles Darwin University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia,¹ Department of Medicine, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia,² Northern Territory Clinical School, Flinders University, Darwin, Northern Territory, Australia,³ Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, Faculty of Medicine, Imperial College London, St. Mary's Hospital, London, United Kingdom,⁴ Townsville General Hospital, Townsville, Queensland, Australia⁵

Received 30 August 2007/ Returned for modification 14 October 2007/ Accepted 30 October 2007

Melioidosis is caused by the gram-negative saprophytic bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, which is endemic to southeast Asia and northern Australia. We have previously found evidence of geographic localization of strains based on multilocus sequence typing (MLST). In this study, we examined the diversity of 277 isolates from northern Australia, which were resolved into 159 different sequence types. No sequence types were common to both Queensland and the Northern Territory, and there was significant differentiation between the alleles present in the two regions. The considerable diversity in sequence types contrasts with the limited diversity of alleles at MLST loci, supporting previous work suggesting a high rate of recombination relative to mutation in B. pseudomallei, where new sequence types are primarily generated by reassortment of existing alleles.

Published ahead of print on 14 November 2007.