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1. Genomic epidemiology reveals geographical clustering of multidrug-resistant Escherichia coli ST131 associated with bacteraemia in Wales

Author

Rhys T. White, Matthew J. Bull, Clare R. Barker, Julie M. Arnott, Mandy Wootton, Lim S. Jones, Robin A. Howe, Mari Morgan, Melinda M. Ashcroft, Brian M. Forde, Thomas R. Connor, and Scott A. Beatson

Subjects
Science
Abstract

Abstract Antibiotic resistance is a significant global public health concern. Uropathogenic Escherichia coli sequence type (ST)131, a widely prevalent multidrug-resistant clone, is frequently associated with bacteraemia. This study investigates third-generation cephalosporin resistance in bloodstream infections caused by E. coli ST131. From 2013-2014 blood culture surveillance in Wales, 142 E. coli ST131 genomes were studied alongside global data. All three major ST131 clades were represented across Wales, with clade C/H30 predominant (n = 102/142, 71.8%). Consistent with global findings, Welsh strains of clade C/H30 contain β-lactamase genes from the bla CTX-M-1 group (n = 65/102, 63.7%), which confer resistance to third-generation cephalosporins. Most Welsh clade C/H30 genomes belonged to sub-clade C2/H30Rx (58.3%). A Wales-specific sub-lineage, named GB-WLS.C2, diverged around 1996-2000. An introduction to North Wales around 2002 led to a localised cluster by 2009, depicting limited genomic diversity within North Wales. This investigation emphasises the value of genomic epidemiology, allowing the detection of genetically similar strains in local areas, enabling targeted and timely public health interventions.

Published
2024
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2. CLIMB-COVID: continuous integration supporting decentralised sequencing for SARS-CoV-2 genomic surveillance

Author

Samuel M. Nicholls, Radoslaw Poplawski, Matthew J. Bull, Anthony Underwood, Michael Chapman, Khalil Abu-Dahab, Ben Taylor, Rachel M. Colquhoun, Will P. M. Rowe, Ben Jackson, Verity Hill, Áine O’Toole, Sara Rey, Joel Southgate, Roberto Amato, Rich Livett, Sónia Gonçalves, Ewan M. Harrison, Sharon J. Peacock, David M. Aanensen, Andrew Rambaut, Thomas R. Connor, Nicholas J. Loman, and The COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) Consortium

Subjects
Biology (General), QH301-705.5, Genetics, QH426-470
Abstract

Abstract In response to the ongoing SARS-CoV-2 pandemic in the UK, the COVID-19 Genomics UK (COG-UK) consortium was formed to rapidly sequence SARS-CoV-2 genomes as part of a national-scale genomic surveillance strategy. The network consists of universities, academic institutes, regional sequencing centres and the four UK Public Health Agencies. We describe the development and deployment of CLIMB-COVID, an encompassing digital infrastructure to address the challenge of collecting and integrating both genomic sequencing data and sample-associated metadata produced across the COG-UK network.

Published
2021
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3. The impact of viral mutations on recognition by SARS-CoV-2 specific T cells

Author

Thushan I. de Silva, Guihai Liu, Benjamin B. Lindsey, Danning Dong, Shona C. Moore, Nienyun Sharon Hsu, Dhruv Shah, Dannielle Wellington, Alexander J. Mentzer, Adrienn Angyal, Rebecca Brown, Matthew D. Parker, Zixi Ying, Xuan Yao, Lance Turtle, Susanna Dunachie, Mala K. Maini, Graham Ogg, Julian C. Knight, Yanchun Peng, Sarah L. Rowland-Jones, Tao Dong, David M. Aanensen, Khalil Abudahab, Helen Adams, Alexander Adams, Safiah Afifi, Dinesh Aggarwal, Shazaad S.Y. Ahmad, Louise Aigrain, Adela Alcolea-Medina, Nabil-Fareed Alikhan, Elias Allara, Roberto Amato, Tara Annett, Stephen Aplin, Cristina V. Ariani, Hibo Asad, Amy Ash, Paula Ashfield, Fiona Ashford, Laura Atkinson, Stephen W. Attwood, Cressida Auckland, Alp Aydin, David J. Baker, Paul Baker, Carlos E. Balcazar, Jonathan Ball, Jeffrey C. Barrett, Magdalena Barrow, Edward Barton, Matthew Bashton, Andrew R. Bassett, Rahul Batra, Chris Baxter, Nadua Bayzid, Charlotte Beaver, Angela H. Beckett, Shaun M. Beckwith, Luke Bedford, Robert Beer, Andrew Beggs, Katherine L. Bellis, Louise Berry, Beatrice Bertolusso, Angus Best, Emma Betteridge, David Bibby, Kelly Bicknell, Debbie Binns, Alec Birchley, Paul W. Bird, Chloe Bishop, Rachel Blacow, Victoria Blakey, Beth Blane, Frances Bolt, James Bonfield, Stephen Bonner, David Bonsall, Tim Boswell, Andrew Bosworth, Yann Bourgeois, Olivia Boyd, Declan T. Bradley, Cassie Breen, Catherine Bresner, Judith Breuer, Stephen Bridgett, Iraad F. Bronner, Ellena Brooks, Alice Broos, Julianne R. Brown, Giselda Bucca, Sarah L. Buchan, David Buck, Matthew Bull, Phillipa J. Burns, Shirelle Burton-Fanning, Timothy Byaruhanga, Matthew Byott, Sharon Campbell, Alessandro M. Carabelli, James S. Cargill, Matthew Carlile, Silvia F. Carvalho, Anna Casey, Anibolina Castigador, Jana Catalan, Vicki Chalker, Nicola J. Chaloner, Meera Chand, Joseph G. Chappell, Themoula Charalampous, Wendy Chatterton, Yasmin Chaudhry, Carol M. Churcher, Gemma Clark, Phillip Clarke, Benjamin J. Cogger, Kevin Cole, Jennifer Collins, Rachel Colquhoun, Thomas R. Connor, Kate F. Cook, Jason Coombes, Sally Corden, Claire Cormie, Nicholas Cortes, Marius Cotic, Seb Cotton, Simon Cottrell, Lindsay Coupland, MacGregor Cox, Alison Cox, Noel Craine, Liam Crawford, Aidan Cross, Matthew R. Crown, Dorian Crudgington, Nicola Cumley, Tanya Curran, Martin D. Curran, Ana da Silva Filipe, Gavin Dabrera, Alistair C. Darby, Rose K. Davidson, Alisha Davies, Robert M. Davies, Thomas Davis, Daniela de Angelis, Elen De Lacy, Leonardo de Oliveira Martins, Johnny Debebe, Rebecca Denton-Smith, Samir Dervisevic, Rebecca Dewar, Jayasree Dey, Joana Dias, Donald Dobie, Matthew J. Dorman, Fatima Downing, Megan Driscoll, Louis du Plessis, Nichola Duckworth, Jillian Durham, Kirstine Eastick, Lisa J. Easton, Richard Eccles, Jonathan Edgeworth, Sue Edwards, Kate El Bouzidi, Sahar Eldirdiri, Nicholas Ellaby, Scott Elliott, Gary Eltringham, Leah Ensell, Michelle J. Erkiert, Marina Escalera Zamudio, Sarah Essex, Johnathan M. Evans, Cariad Evans, William Everson, Derek J. Fairley, Karlie Fallon, Arezou Fanaie, Ben W. Farr, Christopher Fearn, Theresa Feltwell, Lynne Ferguson, Laia Fina, Flavia Flaviani, Vicki M. Fleming, Sally Forrest, Ebenezer Foster-Nyarko, Benjamin H. Foulkes, Luke Foulser, Mireille Fragakis, Dan Frampton, Sarah Francois, Christophe Fraser, Timothy M. Freeman, Helen Fryer, Marc Fuchs, William Fuller, Kavitha Gajee, Katerina Galai, Abbie Gallagher, Eileen Gallagher, Michael D. Gallagher, Marta Gallis, Amy Gaskin, Bree Gatica-Wilcox, Lily Geidelberg, Matthew Gemmell, Iliana Georgana, Ryan P. George, Laura Gifford, Lauren Gilbert, Sophia T. Girgis, Sharon Glaysher, Emily J. Goldstein, Tanya Golubchik, Andrea N. Gomes, Sónia Gonçalves, Ian G. Goodfellow, Scott Goodwin, Salman Goudarzi, Marina Gourtovaia, Clive Graham, Lee Graham, Paul R. Grant, Luke R. Green, Angie Green, Jane Greenaway, Richard Gregory, Martyn Guest, Rory N. Gunson, Ravi K. Gupta, Bernardo Gutierrez, Sam T. Haldenby, William L. Hamilton, Samantha E. Hansford, Tanzina Haque, Kathryn A. Harris, Ian Harrison, Ewan M. Harrison, Jennifer Hart, John A. Hartley, William T. Harvey, Matthew Harvey, Mohammed O. Hassan-Ibrahim, Judith Heaney, Thomas Helmer, John H. Henderson, Andrew R. Hesketh, Jessica Hey, David Heyburn, Ellen E. Higginson, Verity Hill, Jack D. Hill, Rachel A. Hilson, Ember Hilvers, Matthew T.G. Holden, Amy Hollis, Christopher W. Holmes, Nadine Holmes, Alison H. Holmes, Richard Hopes, Hailey R. Hornsby, Myra Hosmillo, Catherine Houlihan, Hannah C. Howson-Wells, Jonathan Hubb, Hannah Huckson, Warwick Hughes, Joseph Hughes, Margaret Hughes, Stephanie Hutchings, Giles Idle, Chris J. Illingworth, Robert Impey, Dianne Irish-Tavares, Miren Iturriza-Gomara, Rhys Izuagbe, Chris Jackson, Ben Jackson, Leigh M. Jackson, Kathryn A. Jackson, David K. Jackson, Aminu S. Jahun, Victoria James, Keith James, Christopher Jeanes, Aaron R. Jeffries, Sarah Jeremiah, Andrew Jermy, Michaela John, Rob Johnson, Kate Johnson, Ian Johnston, Owen Jones, Sophie Jones, Hannah Jones, Christopher R. Jones, Neil Jones, Amelia Joseph, Sarah Judges, Gemma L. Kay, Sally Kay, Jon-Paul Keatley, Alexander J. Keeley, Anita Kenyon, Leanne M. Kermack, Manjinder Khakh, Stephen P. Kidd, Maimuna Kimuli, Stuart Kirk, Christine Kitchen, Katie Kitchman, Bridget A. Knight, Cherian Koshy, Moritz U.G. Kraemer, Sara Kumziene-Summerhayes, Dominic Kwiatkowski, Angie Lackenby, Kenneth G. Laing, Temi Lampejo, Cordelia F. Langford, Deborah Lavin, Andrew I. Lawton, Jack Lee, David Lee, Stefanie V. Lensing, Steven Leonard, Lisa J. Levett, Thanh Le-Viet, Jonathan Lewis, Kevin Lewis, Jennifier Liddle, Steven Liggett, Patrick J. Lillie, Michelle M. Lister, Rich Livett, Stephanie Lo, Nicholas J. Loman, Matthew W. Loose, Stavroula F. Louka, Katie F. Loveson, Sarah Lowdon, Hannah Lowe, Helen L. Lowe, Anita O. Lucaci, Catherine Ludden, Jessica Lynch, Ronan A. Lyons, Katrina Lythgoe, Nicholas W. Machin, George MacIntyre-Cockett, Andrew Mack, Ben Macklin, Alasdair Maclean, Emily Macnaughton, Pinglawathee Madona, Mailis Maes, Laurentiu Maftei, Adhyana I.K. Mahanama, Tabitha W. Mahungu, Daniel Mair, Joshua Maksimovic, Cassandra S. Malone, Daniel Maloney, Nikos Manesis, Robin Manley, Anna Mantzouratou, Angela Marchbank, Arun Mariappan, Inigo Martincorena, Rocio T. Martinez Nunez, Alison E. Mather, Patrick Maxwell, Megan Mayhew, Tamyo Mbisa, Clare M. McCann, Shane A. McCarthy, Kathryn McCluggage, Patrick C. McClure, J.T. McCrone, Martin P. McHugh, James P. McKenna, Caoimhe McKerr, Georgina M. McManus, Claire L. McMurray, Claire McMurray, Alan McNally, Lizzie Meadows, Nathan Medd, Oliver Megram, Mirko Menegazzo, Ian Merrick, Stephen L. Michell, Michelle L. Michelsen, Mariyam Mirfenderesky, Jeremy Mirza, Julia Miskelly, Emma Moles-Garcia, Robin J. Moll, Zoltan Molnar, Irene M. Monahan, Matteo Mondani, Siddharth Mookerjee, Christopher Moore, Jonathan Moore, Nathan Moore, Catherine Moore, Helen Morcrette, Sian Morgan, Mari Morgan, Matilde Mori, Arthur Morriss, Samuel Moses, Craig Mower, Peter Muir, Afrida Mukaddas, Florence Munemo, Robert Munn, Abigail Murray, Leanne J. Murray, Darren R. Murray, Manasa Mutingwende, Richard Myers, Eleni Nastouli, Gaia Nebbia, Andrew Nelson, Charlotte Nelson, Sam Nicholls, Jenna Nichols, Roberto Nicodemi, Kyriaki Nomikou, Justin O’Grady, Sarah O'Brien, Mina Odedra, Natasha Ohemeng-Kumi, Karen Oliver, Richard J. Orton, Husam Osman, xeine O'Toole, Nicole Pacchiarini, Debra Padgett, Andrew J. Page, Emily J. Park, Naomi R. Park, Surendra Parmar, David G. Partridge, David Pascall, Amita Patel, Bindi Patel, Steve Paterson, Brendan A.I. Payne, Sharon J. Peacock, Clare Pearson, Emanuela Pelosi, Benita Percival, Jon Perkins, Malorie Perry, Malte L. Pinckert, Steven Platt, Olga Podplomyk, Manoj Pohare, Marcus Pond, Cassie F. Pope, Radoslaw Poplawski, Jessica Powell, Jennifer Poyner, Liam Prestwood, Anna Price, James R. Price, Jacqui A. Prieto, David T. Pritchard, Sophie J. Prosolek, Georgia Pugh, Monika Pusok, Oliver G. Pybus, Hannah M. Pymont, Michael A. Quail, Joshua Quick, Clara Radulescu, Jayna Raghwani, Manon Ragonnet-Cronin, Lucille Rainbow, Diana Rajan, Shavanthi Rajatileka, Newara A. Ramadan, Andrew Rambaut, John Ramble, Paul A. Randell, Paul Randell, Liz Ratcliffe, Veena Raviprakash, Mohammad Raza, Nicholas M. Redshaw, Sara Rey, Nicola Reynolds, Alex Richter, David L. Robertson, Esther Robinson, Samuel C. Robson, Fiona Rogan, Stefan Rooke, Will Rowe, Sunando Roy, Steven Rudder, Chris Ruis, Steven Rushton, Felicity Ryan, Kordo Saeed, Buddhini Samaraweera, Christine M. Sambles, Roy Sanderson, Theo Sanderson, Fei Sang, Thea Sass, Emily Scher, Garren Scott, Carol Scott, Jasveen Sehmi, Sharif Shaaban, Divya Shah, Jessica Shaw, Ekaterina Shelest, James G. Shepherd, Liz A. Sheridan, Nicola Sheriff, Lesley Shirley, John Sillitoe, Siona Silviera, David A. Simpson, Aditi Singh, Dawn Singleton, Timofey Skvortsov, Tim J. Sloan, Graciela Sluga, Ken Smith, Kim S. Smith, Perminder Smith, Darren L. Smith, Louise Smith, Colin P. Smith, Nikki Smith, Katherine L. Smollett, Luke B. Snell, Thomas Somassa, Joel Southgate, Karla Spellman, Michael H. Spencer Chapman, Lewis G. Spurgin, Moira J. Spyer, Rachael Stanley, William Stanley, Thomas D. Stanton, Igor Starinskij, Joanne Stockton, Susanne Stonehouse, Nathaniel Storey, David J. Studholme, Malur Sudhanva, Emma Swindells, Yusri Taha, Ngee Keong Tan, Julian W. Tang, Miao Tang, Ben E.W. Taylor, Joshua F. Taylor, Sarah Taylor, Ben Temperton, Kate E. Templeton, Claire Thomas, Laura Thomson, Emma C. Thomson, Alicia Thornton, Scott A.J. Thurston, John A. Todd, Rachael Tomb, Lily Tong, Gerry Tonkin-Hill, M. Estee Torok, Jaime M. Tovar-Corona, Amy Trebes, Alexander J. Trotter, Ioulia Tsatsani, Robyn Turnbull, Katherine A. Twohig, Helen Umpleby, Anthony P. Underwood, Edith E. Vamos, Tetyana I. Vasylyeva, Sreenu Vattipally, Gabrielle Vernet, Barry B. Vipond, Erik M. Volz, Sarah Walsh, Dennis Wang, Ben Warne, Joanna Warwick-Dugdale, Elizabeth Wastnedge, Joanne Watkins, Louisa K. Watson, Sheila Waugh, Hermione J. Webster, Danni Weldon, Elaine Westwick, Thomas Whalley, Helen Wheeler, Mark Whitehead, Max Whiteley, Andrew Whitwham, Claudia Wierzbicki, Nicholas J. Willford, Lesley-Anne Williams, Rebecca Williams, Cheryl Williams, Chris Williams, Charlotte A. Williams, Rachel J. Williams, Thomas Williams, Catryn Williams, Kathleen A. Williamson, Eleri Wilson-Davies, Eric Witele, Karen T. Withell, Adam A. Witney, Paige Wolverson, Nick Wong, Trudy Workman, Victoria Wright, Derek W. Wright, Tim Wyatt, Sarah Wyllie, Li Xu-McCrae, Mehmet Yavus, Geraldine Yaze, Corin A. Yeats, Gonzalo Yebra, Wen C. Yew, Gregory R. Young, Jamie Young, Alex E. Zarebski, Peijun Zhang, J. Kenneth Baillie, Malcolm G. Semple, Peter J.M. Openshaw, Gail Carson, Beatrice Alex, Petros Andrikopoulos, Benjamin Bach, Wendy S. Barclay, Debby Bogaert, Kanta Chechi, Graham S. Cooke, Annemarie B. Docherty, Gonçalo dos Santos Correia, Marc-Emmanuel Dumas, Jake Dunning, Tom Fletcher, Christopher A. Green, William Greenhalf, Julian L. Griffin, Rishi K. Gupta, Ewen M. Harrison, Julian A. Hiscox, Antonia Ying Wai Ho, Peter W. Horby, Samreen Ijaz, Saye Khoo, Paul Klenerman, Andrew Law, Matthew R. Lewis, Sonia Liggi, Wei Shen Lim, Lynn Maslen, Laura Merson, Alison M. Meynert, Mahdad Noursadeghi, Michael Olanipekun, Anthonia Osagie, Massimo Palmarini, Carlo Palmieri, William A. Paxton, Georgios Pollakis, Nicholas Price, Clark D. Russell, Vanessa Sancho-Shimizu, Caroline J. Sands, Janet T. Scott, Louise Sigfrid, Tom Solomon, Shiranee Sriskandan, David Stuart, Charlotte Summers, Olivia V. Swann, Zoltan Takats, Panteleimon Takis, Richard S. Tedder, A.A. Roger Thompson, Ryan S. Thwaites, Maria Zambon, Hayley Hardwick, Chloe Donohue, Fiona Griffiths, Wilna Oosthuyzen, Cara Donegan, Rebecca G. Spencer, Jo Dalton, Michelle Girvan, Egle Saviciute, Stephanie Roberts, Janet Harrison, Laura Marsh, Marie Connor, Sophie Halpin, Clare Jackson, Carrol Gamble, Daniel Plotkin, James Lee, Gary Leeming, Murray Wham, Sara Clohisey, Ross Hendry, James Scott-Brown, Victoria Shaw, Sarah E. McDonald, Seán Keating, Katie A. Ahmed, Jane A. Armstrong, Milton Ashworth, Innocent G. Asiimwe, Siddharth Bakshi, Samantha L. Barlow, Laura Booth, Benjamin Brennan, Katie Bullock, Benjamin W.A. Catterall, Jordan J. Clark, Emily A. Clarke, Sarah Cole, Louise Cooper, Helen Cox, Christopher Davis, Oslem Dincarslan, Chris Dunn, Philip Dyer, Angela Elliott, Anthony Evans, Lorna Finch, Lewis W.S. Fisher, Terry Foster, Isabel Garcia-Dorival, Philip Gunning, Catherine Hartley, Rebecca L. Jensen, Christopher B. Jones, Trevor R. Jones, Shadia Khandaker, Katharine King, Robyn T. Kiy, Chrysa Koukorava, Annette Lake, Suzannah Lant, Diane Latawiec, Lara Lavelle-Langham, Daniella Lefteri, Lauren Lett, Lucia A. Livoti, Maria Mancini, Sarah McDonald, Laurence McEvoy, John McLauchlan, Soeren Metelmann, Nahida S. Miah, Joanna Middleton, Joyce Mitchell, Ellen G. Murphy, Rebekah Penrice-Randal, Jack Pilgrim, Tessa Prince, Will Reynolds, P. Matthew Ridley, Debby Sales, Victoria E. Shaw, Rebecca K. Shears, Benjamin Small, Krishanthi S. Subramaniam, Agnieska Szemiel, Aislynn Taggart, Jolanta Tanianis-Hughes, Jordan Thomas, Erwan Trochu, Libby van Tonder, Eve Wilcock, J. Eunice Zhang, Lisa Flaherty, Nicole Maziere, Emily Cass, Alejandra Doce Carracedo, Nicola Carlucci, Anthony Holmes, Hannah Massey, Lee Murphy, Nicola Wrobel, Sarah McCafferty, Kirstie Morrice, Alan MacLean, Kayode Adeniji, Daniel Agranoff, Ken Agwuh, Dhiraj Ail, Erin L. Aldera, Ana Alegria, Sam Allen, Brian Angus, Abdul Ashish, Dougal Atkinson, Shahedal Bari, Gavin Barlow, Stella Barnass, Nicholas Barrett, Christopher Bassford, Sneha Basude, David Baxter, Michael Beadsworth, Jolanta Bernatoniene, John Berridge, Colin Berry, Nicola Best, Pieter Bothma, David Chadwick, Robin Brittain-Long, Naomi Bulteel, Tom Burden, Andrew Burtenshaw, Vikki Caruth, Duncan Chambler, Nigel Chee, Jenny Child, Srikanth Chukkambotla, Tom Clark, Paul Collini, Catherine Cosgrove, Jason Cupitt, Maria-Teresa Cutino-Moguel, Paul Dark, Chris Dawson, Phil Donnison, Sam Douthwaite, Andrew Drummond, Ingrid DuRand, Ahilanadan Dushianthan, Tristan Dyer, Chi Eziefula, Chrisopher Fegan, Adam Finn, Duncan Fullerton, Sanjeev Garg, Atul Garg, Effrossyni Gkrania-Klotsas, Jo Godden, Arthur Goldsmith, Elaine Hardy, Stuart Hartshorn, Daniel Harvey, Peter Havalda, Daniel B. Hawcutt, Maria Hobrok, Luke Hodgson, Anil Hormis, Michael Jacobs, Susan Jain, Paul Jennings, Agilan Kaliappan, Vidya Kasipandian, Stephen Kegg, Michael Kelsey, Jason Kendall, Caroline Kerrison, Ian Kerslake, Oliver Koch, Gouri Koduri, George Koshy, Shondipon Laha, Steven Laird, Susan Larkin, Tamas Leiner, Patrick Lillie, James Limb, Vanessa Linnett, Jeff Little, Mark Lyttle, Michael MacMahon, Emily MacNaughton, Ravish Mankregod, Huw Masson, Elijah Matovu, Katherine McCullough, Ruth McEwen, Manjula Meda, Gary Mills, Jane Minton, Kavya Mohandas, Quen Mok, James Moon, Elinoor Moore, Patrick Morgan, Craig Morris, Katherine Mortimore, Mbiye Mpenge, Rohinton Mulla, Michael Murphy, Megan Nagel, Thapas Nagarajan, Mark Nelson, Lillian Norris, Matthew K. O'Shea, Igor Otahal, Marlies Ostermann, Mark Pais, Selva Panchatsharam, Danai Papakonstantinou, Hassan Paraiso, Brij Patel, Natalie Pattison, Justin Pepperell, Mark Peters, Mandeep Phull, Stefania Pintus, Jagtur Singh Pooni, Tim Planche, Frank Post, David Price, Rachel Prout, Nikolas Rae, Henrik Reschreiter, Tim Reynolds, Neil Richardson, Mark Roberts, Devender Roberts, Alistair Rose, Guy Rousseau, Bobby Ruge, Brendan Ryan, Taranprit Saluja, Matthias L. Schmid, Aarti Shah, Prad Shanmuga, Anil Sharma, Anna Shawcross, Jeremy Sizer, Manu Shankar-Hari, Richard Smith, Catherine Snelson, Nick Spittle, Nikki Staines, Tom Stambach, Richard Stewart, Pradeep Subudhi, Tamas Szakmany, Kate Tatham, Jo Thomas, Chris Thompson, Robert Thompson, Ascanio Tridente, Darell Tupper-Carey, Mary Twagira, Nick Vallotton, Rama Vancheeswaran, Lisa Vincent-Smith, Shico Visuvanathan, Alan Vuylsteke, Sam Waddy, Rachel Wake, Andrew Walden, Ingeborg Welters, Tony Whitehouse, Paul Whittaker, Ashley Whittington, Padmasayee Papineni, Meme Wijesinghe, Martin Williams, Lawrence Wilson, Stephen Winchester, Martin Wiselka, Adam Wolverson, Daniel G. Wootton, Andrew Workman, Bryan Yates, and Peter Young

Subjects
Phylogenetics, Molecular biology, Immunology, Immune response, Virology, Science
Abstract

Summary: We identify amino acid variants within dominant SARS-CoV-2 T cell epitopes by interrogating global sequence data. Several variants within nucleocapsid and ORF3a epitopes have arisen independently in multiple lineages and result in loss of recognition by epitope-specific T cells assessed by IFN-γ and cytotoxic killing assays. Complete loss of T cell responsiveness was seen due to Q213K in the A∗01:01-restricted CD8+ ORF3a epitope FTSDYYQLY207-215; due to P13L, P13S, and P13T in the B∗27:05-restricted CD8+ nucleocapsid epitope QRNAPRITF9-17; and due to T362I and P365S in the A∗03:01/A∗11:01-restricted CD8+ nucleocapsid epitope KTFPPTEPK361-369. CD8+ T cell lines unable to recognize variant epitopes have diverse T cell receptor repertoires. These data demonstrate the potential for T cell evasion and highlight the need for ongoing surveillance for variants capable of escaping T cell as well as humoral immunity.

Published
2021
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4. Discovery of the Pseudomonas Polyyne Protegencin by a Phylogeny-Guided Study of Polyyne Biosynthetic Gene Cluster Diversity

Author

Alex J. Mullins, Gordon Webster, Hak Joong Kim, Jinlian Zhao, Yoana D. Petrova, Christina E. Ramming, Matthew Jenner, James A. H. Murray, Thomas R. Connor, Christian Hertweck, Gregory L. Challis, and Eshwar Mahenthiralingam

Subjects
Pseudomonas, biosynthetic gene clusters, natural products, phylogenetics, polyynes, Microbiology, QR1-502
Abstract

ABSTRACT Natural products that possess alkyne or polyyne moieties have been isolated from a variety of biological sources and possess a broad a range of bioactivities. In bacteria, the basic biosynthesis of polyynes is known, but their biosynthetic gene cluster (BGC) distribution and evolutionary relationship to alkyne biosynthesis have not been addressed. Through comprehensive genomic and phylogenetic analyses, the distribution of alkyne biosynthesis gene cassettes throughout bacteria was explored, revealing evidence of multiple horizontal gene transfer events. After investigation of the evolutionary connection between alkyne and polyyne biosynthesis, a monophyletic clade was identified that possessed a conserved seven-gene cassette for polyyne biosynthesis that built upon the conserved three-gene cassette for alkyne biosynthesis. Further diversity mapping of the conserved polyyne gene cassette revealed a phylogenetic subclade for an uncharacterized polyyne BGC present in several Pseudomonas species, designated pgn. Pathway mutagenesis and high-resolution analytical chemistry showed the Pseudomonas protegens pgn BGC directed the biosynthesis of a novel polyyne, protegencin. Exploration of the biosynthetic logic behind polyyne production, through BGC mutagenesis and analytical chemistry, highlighted the essentiality of a triad of desaturase proteins and a thioesterase in both the P. protegens pgn and Trinickia caryophylli (formerly Burkholderia caryophylli) caryoynencin pathways. We have unified and expanded knowledge of polyyne diversity and uniquely demonstrated that alkyne and polyyne biosynthetic gene clusters are evolutionarily related and widely distributed within bacteria. The systematic mapping of conserved biosynthetic genes across the available bacterial genomic diversity proved to be a fruitful method for discovering new natural products and better understanding polyyne biosynthesis. IMPORTANCE Natural products bearing alkyne (triple carbon bond) or polyyne (multiple alternating single and triple carbon bonds) moieties exhibit a broad range of important biological activities. Polyyne metabolites have been implicated in important ecological roles such as cepacin mediating biological control of plant pathogens and caryoynencin protecting Lagriinae beetle eggs against pathogenic fungi. After further phylogenetic exploration of polyyne diversity, we identified a novel gene cluster in Pseudomonas bacteria with known biological control abilities and proved it was responsible for synthesizing a new polyyne metabolite, protegencin. The evolutionary analysis of polyyne pathways showed that multiple biosynthetic genes were conserved, and using mutagenesis, their essentiality was demonstrated. Our research provides a foundation for the future modification of polyyne metabolites and has identified a novel polyyne, protegencin, with potential bioactive roles of ecological and agricultural importance.

Published
2021
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5. Recurrent emergence of SARS-CoV-2 spike deletion H69/V70 and its role in the Alpha variant B.1.1.7

Author

Bo Meng, Steven A. Kemp, Guido Papa, Rawlings Datir, Isabella A.T.M. Ferreira, Sara Marelli, William T. Harvey, Spyros Lytras, Ahmed Mohamed, Giulia Gallo, Nazia Thakur, Dami A. Collier, Petra Mlcochova, Lidia M. Duncan, Alessandro M. Carabelli, Julia C. Kenyon, Andrew M. Lever, Anna De Marco, Christian Saliba, Katja Culap, Elisabetta Cameroni, Nicholas J. Matheson, Luca Piccoli, Davide Corti, Leo C. James, David L. Robertson, Dalan Bailey, Ravindra K. Gupta, Samuel C. Robson, Nicholas J. Loman, Thomas R. Connor, Tanya Golubchik, Rocio T. Martinez Nunez, Catherine Ludden, Sally Corden, Ian Johnston, David Bonsall, Colin P. Smith, Ali R. Awan, Giselda Bucca, M. Estee Torok, Kordo Saeed, Jacqui A. Prieto, David K. Jackson, William L. Hamilton, Luke B. Snell, Catherine Moore, Ewan M. Harrison, Sonia Goncalves, Derek J. Fairley, Matthew W. Loose, Joanne Watkins, Rich Livett, Samuel Moses, Roberto Amato, Sam Nicholls, Matthew Bull, Darren L. Smith, Jeff Barrett, David M. Aanensen, Martin D. Curran, Surendra Parmar, Dinesh Aggarwal, James G. Shepherd, Matthew D. Parker, Sharon Glaysher, Matthew Bashton, Anthony P. Underwood, Nicole Pacchiarini, Katie F. Loveson, Kate E. Templeton, Cordelia F. Langford, John Sillitoe, Thushan I. de Silva, Dennis Wang, Dominic Kwiatkowski, Andrew Rambaut, Justin O’Grady, Simon Cottrell, Matthew T.G. Holden, Emma C. Thomson, Husam Osman, Monique Andersson, Anoop J. Chauhan, Mohammed O. Hassan-Ibrahim, Mara Lawniczak, Alex Alderton, Meera Chand, Chrystala Constantinidou, Meera Unnikrishnan, Alistair C. Darby, Julian A. Hiscox, Steve Paterson, Inigo Martincorena, Erik M. Volz, Andrew J. Page, Oliver G. Pybus, Andrew R. Bassett, Cristina V. Ariani, Michael H. Spencer Chapman, Kathy K. Li, Rajiv N. Shah, Natasha G. Jesudason, Yusri Taha, Martin P. McHugh, Rebecca Dewar, Aminu S. Jahun, Claire McMurray, Sarojini Pandey, James P. McKenna, Andrew Nelson, Gregory R. Young, Clare M. McCann, Scott Elliott, Hannah Lowe, Ben Temperton, Sunando Roy, Anna Price, Sara Rey, Matthew Wyles, Stefan Rooke, Sharif Shaaban, Mariateresa de Cesare, Laura Letchford, Siona Silveira, Emanuela Pelosi, Eleri Wilson-Davies, Myra Hosmillo, Áine O’Toole, Andrew R. Hesketh, Richard Stark, Louis du Plessis, Chris Ruis, Helen Adams, Yann Bourgeois, Stephen L. Michell, Dimitris Gramatopoulos, Jonathan Edgeworth, Judith Breuer, John A. Todd, Christophe Fraser, David Buck, Michaela John, Gemma L. Kay, Steve Palmer, Sharon J. Peacock, David Heyburn, Danni Weldon, Esther Robinson, Alan McNally, Peter Muir, Ian B. Vipond, John Boyes, Venkat Sivaprakasam, Tranprit Salluja, Samir Dervisevic, Emma J. Meader, Naomi R. Park, Karen Oliver, Aaron R. Jeffries, Sascha Ott, Ana da Silva Filipe, David A. Simpson, Chris Williams, Jane A.H. Masoli, Bridget A. Knight, Christopher R. Jones, Cherian Koshy, Amy Ash, Anna Casey, Andrew Bosworth, Liz Ratcliffe, Li Xu-McCrae, Hannah M. Pymont, Stephanie Hutchings, Lisa Berry, Katie Jones, Fenella Halstead, Thomas Davis, Christopher Holmes, Miren Iturriza-Gomara, Anita O. Lucaci, Paul Anthony Randell, Alison Cox, Pinglawathee Madona, Kathryn Ann Harris, Julianne Rose Brown, Tabitha W. Mahungu, Dianne Irish-Tavares, Tanzina Haque, Jennifer Hart, Eric Witele, Melisa Louise Fenton, Steven Liggett, Clive Graham, Emma Swindells, Jennifer Collins, Gary Eltringham, Sharon Campbell, Patrick C. McClure, Gemma Clark, Tim J. Sloan, Carl Jones, Jessica Lynch, Ben Warne, Steven Leonard, Jillian Durham, Thomas Williams, Sam T. Haldenby, Nathaniel Storey, Nabil-Fareed Alikhan, Nadine Holmes, Christopher Moore, Matthew Carlile, Malorie Perry, Noel Craine, Ronan A. Lyons, Angela H. Beckett, Salman Goudarzi, Christopher Fearn, Kate Cook, Hannah Dent, Hannah Paul, Robert Davies, Beth Blane, Sophia T. Girgis, Mathew A. Beale, Katherine L. Bellis, Matthew J. Dorman, Eleanor Drury, Leanne Kane, Sally Kay, Samantha McGuigan, Rachel Nelson, Liam Prestwood, Shavanthi Rajatileka, Rahul Batra, Rachel J. Williams, Mark Kristiansen, Angie Green, Anita Justice, Adhyana I.K. Mahanama, Buddhini Samaraweera, Nazreen F. Hadjirin, Joshua Quick, Radoslaw Poplawski, Leanne M. Kermack, Nicola Reynolds, Grant Hall, Yasmin Chaudhry, Malte L. Pinckert, Iliana Georgana, Robin J. Moll, Alicia Thornton, Richard Myers, Joanne Stockton, Charlotte A. Williams, Wen C. Yew, Alexander J. Trotter, Amy Trebes, George MacIntyre-Cockett, Alec Birchley, Alexander Adams, Amy Plimmer, Bree Gatica-Wilcox, Caoimhe McKerr, Ember Hilvers, Hannah Jones, Hibo Asad, Jason Coombes, Johnathan M. Evans, Laia Fina, Lauren Gilbert, Lee Graham, Michelle Cronin, Sara Kumziene-Summerhayes, Sarah Taylor, Sophie Jones, Danielle C. Groves, Peijun Zhang, Marta Gallis, Stavroula F. Louka, Igor Starinskij, Chris Jackson, Marina Gourtovaia, Gerry Tonkin-Hill, Kevin Lewis, Jaime M. Tovar-Corona, Keith James, Laura Baxter, Mohammad T. Alam, Richard J. Orton, Joseph Hughes, Sreenu Vattipally, Manon Ragonnet-Cronin, Fabricia F. Nascimento, David Jorgensen, Olivia Boyd, Lily Geidelberg, Alex E. Zarebski, Jayna Raghwani, Moritz U.G. Kraemer, Joel Southgate, Benjamin B. Lindsey, Timothy M. Freeman, Jon-Paul Keatley, Joshua B. Singer, Leonardo de Oliveira Martins, Corin A. Yeats, Khalil Abudahab, Ben E.W. Taylor, Mirko Menegazzo, John Danesh, Wendy Hogsden, Sahar Eldirdiri, Anita Kenyon, Jenifer Mason, Trevor I. Robinson, Alison Holmes, James Price, John A. Hartley, Tanya Curran, Alison E. Mather, Giri Shankar, Rachel Jones, Robin Howe, Sian Morgan, Elizabeth Wastenge, Michael R. Chapman, Siddharth Mookerjee, Rachael Stanley, Wendy Smith, Timothy Peto, David Eyre, Derrick Crook, Gabrielle Vernet, Christine Kitchen, Huw Gulliver, Ian Merrick, Martyn Guest, Robert Munn, Declan T. Bradley, Tim Wyatt, Charlotte Beaver, Luke Foulser, Sophie Palmer, Carol M. Churcher, Ellena Brooks, Kim S. Smith, Katerina Galai, Georgina M. McManus, Frances Bolt, Francesc Coll, Lizzie Meadows, Stephen W. Attwood, Alisha Davies, Elen De Lacy, Fatima Downing, Sue Edwards, Garry P. Scarlett, Sarah Jeremiah, Nikki Smith, Danielle Leek, Sushmita Sridhar, Sally Forrest, Claire Cormie, Harmeet K. Gill, Joana Dias, Ellen E. Higginson, Mailis Maes, Jamie Young, Michelle Wantoch, Dorota Jamrozy, Stephanie Lo, Minal Patel, Verity Hill, Claire M. Bewshea, Sian Ellard, Cressida Auckland, Ian Harrison, Chloe Bishop, Vicki Chalker, Alex Richter, Andrew Beggs, Angus Best, Benita Percival, Jeremy Mirza, Oliver Megram, Megan Mayhew, Liam Crawford, Fiona Ashcroft, Emma Moles-Garcia, Nicola Cumley, Richard Hopes, Patawee Asamaphan, Marc O. Niebel, Rory N. Gunson, Amanda Bradley, Alasdair Maclean, Guy Mollett, Rachel Blacow, Paul Bird, Thomas Helmer, Karlie Fallon, Julian Tang, Antony D. Hale, Louissa R. Macfarlane-Smith, Katherine L. Harper, Holli Carden, Nicholas W. Machin, Kathryn A. Jackson, Shazaad S.Y. Ahmad, Ryan P. George, Lance Turtle, Elaine O’Toole, Joanne Watts, Cassie Breen, Angela Cowell, Adela Alcolea-Medina, Themoula Charalampous, Amita Patel, Lisa J. Levett, Judith Heaney, Aileen Rowan, Graham P. Taylor, Divya Shah, Laura Atkinson, Jack C.D. Lee, Adam P. Westhorpe, Riaz Jannoo, Helen L. Lowe, Angeliki Karamani, Leah Ensell, Wendy Chatterton, Monika Pusok, Ashok Dadrah, Amanda Symmonds, Graciela Sluga, Zoltan Molnar, Paul Baker, Stephen Bonner, Sarah Essex, Edward Barton, Debra Padgett, Garren Scott, Jane Greenaway, Brendan A.I. Payne, Shirelle Burton-Fanning, Sheila Waugh, Veena Raviprakash, Nicola Sheriff, Victoria Blakey, Lesley-Anne Williams, Jonathan Moore, Susanne Stonehouse, Louise Smith, Rose K. Davidson, Luke Bedford, Lindsay Coupland, Victoria Wright, Joseph G. Chappell, Theocharis Tsoleridis, Jonathan Ball, Manjinder Khakh, Vicki M. Fleming, Michelle M. Lister, Hannah C. Howson-Wells, Louise Berry, Tim Boswell, Amelia Joseph, Iona Willingham, Nichola Duckworth, Sarah Walsh, Emma Wise, Nathan Moore, Matilde Mori, Nick Cortes, Stephen Kidd, Rebecca Williams, Laura Gifford, Kelly Bicknell, Sarah Wyllie, Allyson Lloyd, Robert Impey, Cassandra S. Malone, Benjamin J. Cogger, Nick Levene, Lynn Monaghan, Alexander J. Keeley, David G. Partridge, Mohammad Raza, Cariad Evans, Kate Johnson, Emma Betteridge, Ben W. Farr, Scott Goodwin, Michael A. Quail, Carol Scott, Lesley Shirley, Scott A.J. Thurston, Diana Rajan, Iraad F. Bronner, Louise Aigrain, Nicholas M. Redshaw, Stefanie V. Lensing, Shane McCarthy, Alex Makunin, Carlos E. Balcazar, Michael D. Gallagher, Kathleen A. Williamson, Thomas D. Stanton, Michelle L. Michelsen, Joanna Warwick-Dugdale, Robin Manley, Audrey Farbos, James W. Harrison, Christine M. Sambles, David J. Studholme, Angie Lackenby, Tamyo Mbisa, Steven Platt, Shahjahan Miah, David Bibby, Carmen Manso, Jonathan Hubb, Gavin Dabrera, Mary Ramsay, Daniel Bradshaw, Ulf Schaefer, Natalie Groves, Eileen Gallagher, David Lee, David Williams, Nicholas Ellaby, Hassan Hartman, Nikos Manesis, Vineet Patel, Juan Ledesma, Katherine A. Twohig, Elias Allara, Clare Pearson, Jeffrey K.J. Cheng, Hannah E. Bridgewater, Lucy R. Frost, Grace Taylor-Joyce, Paul E. Brown, Lily Tong, Alice Broos, Daniel Mair, Jenna Nichols, Stephen N. Carmichael, Katherine L. Smollett, Kyriaki Nomikou, Elihu Aranday-Cortes, Natasha Johnson, Seema Nickbakhsh, Edith E. Vamos, Margaret Hughes, Lucille Rainbow, Richard Eccles, Charlotte Nelson, Mark Whitehead, Richard Gregory, Matthew Gemmell, Claudia Wierzbicki, Hermione J. Webster, Chloe L. Fisher, Adrian W. Signell, Gilberto Betancor, Harry D. Wilson, Gaia Nebbia, Flavia Flaviani, Alberto C. Cerda, Tammy V. Merrill, Rebekah E. Wilson, Marius Cotic, Nadua Bayzid, Thomas Thompson, Erwan Acheson, Steven Rushton, Sarah O’Brien, David J. Baker, Steven Rudder, Alp Aydin, Fei Sang, Johnny Debebe, Sarah Francois, Tetyana I. Vasylyeva, Marina Escalera Zamudio, Bernardo Gutierrez, Angela Marchbank, Joshua Maksimovic, Karla Spellman, Kathryn McCluggage, Mari Morgan, Robert Beer, Safiah Afifi, Trudy Workman, William Fuller, Catherine Bresner, Adrienn Angyal, Luke R. Green, Paul J. Parsons, Rachel M. Tucker, Rebecca Brown, Max Whiteley, James Bonfield, Christoph Puethe, Andrew Whitwham, Jennifier Liddle, Will Rowe, Igor Siveroni, Thanh Le-Viet, Amy Gaskin, Rob Johnson, Irina Abnizova, Mozam Ali, Laura Allen, Ralph Anderson, Cristina Ariani, Siobhan Austin-Guest, Sendu Bala, Jeffrey Barrett, Andrew Bassett, Kristina Battleday, James Beal, Mathew Beale, Sam Bellany, Tristram Bellerby, Katie Bellis, Duncan Berger, Matt Berriman, Paul Bevan, Simon Binley, Jason Bishop, Kirsty Blackburn, Nick Boughton, Sam Bowker, Timothy Brendler-Spaeth, Iraad Bronner, Tanya Brooklyn, Sarah Kay Buddenborg, Robert Bush, Catarina Caetano, Alex Cagan, Nicola Carter, Joanna Cartwright, Tiago Carvalho Monteiro, Liz Chapman, Tracey-Jane Chillingworth, Peter Clapham, Richard Clark, Adrian Clarke, Catriona Clarke, Daryl Cole, Elizabeth Cook, Maria Coppola, Linda Cornell, Clare Cornwell, Craig Corton, Abby Crackett, Alison Cranage, Harriet Craven, Sarah Craw, Mark Crawford, Tim Cutts, Monika Dabrowska, Matt Davies, Joseph Dawson, Callum Day, Aiden Densem, Thomas Dibling, Cat Dockree, David Dodd, Sunil Dogga, Matthew Dorman, Gordon Dougan, Martin Dougherty, Alexander Dove, Lucy Drummond, Monika Dudek, Laura Durrant, Elizabeth Easthope, Sabine Eckert, Pete Ellis, Ben Farr, Michael Fenton, Marcella Ferrero, Neil Flack, Howerd Fordham, Grace Forsythe, Matt Francis, Audrey Fraser, Adam Freeman, Anastasia Galvin, Maria Garcia-Casado, Alex Gedny, Sophia Girgis, James Glover, Oliver Gould, Andy Gray, Emma Gray, Coline Griffiths, Yong Gu, Florence Guerin, Will Hamilton, Hannah Hanks, Ewan Harrison, Alexandria Harrott, Edward Harry, Julia Harvison, Paul Heath, Anastasia Hernandez-Koutoucheva, Rhiannon Hobbs, Dave Holland, Sarah Holmes, Gary Hornett, Nicholas Hough, Liz Huckle, Lena Hughes-Hallet, Adam Hunter, Stephen Inglis, Sameena Iqbal, Adam Jackson, David Jackson, Carlos Jimenez Verdejo, Matthew Jones, Kalyan Kallepally, Keely Kay, Jon Keatley, Alan Keith, Alison King, Lucy Kitchin, Matt Kleanthous, Martina Klimekova, Petra Korlevic, Ksenia Krasheninnkova, Greg Lane, Cordelia Langford, Adam Laverack, Katharine Law, Stefanie Lensing, Amanah Lewis-Wade, Jennifer Liddle, Quan Lin, Sarah Lindsay, Sally Linsdell, Rhona Long, Jamie Lovell, Jon Lovell, James Mack, Mark Maddison, Aleksei Makunin, Irfan Mamun, Jenny Mansfield, Neil Marriott, Matt Martin, Matthew Mayho, Jo McClintock, Sandra McHugh, Liz MapcMinn, Carl Meadows, Emily Mobley, Robin Moll, Maria Morra, Leanne Morrow, Kathryn Murie, Sian Nash, Claire Nathwani, Plamena Naydenova, Alexandra Neaverson, Ed Nerou, Jon Nicholson, Tabea Nimz, Guillaume G. Noell, Sarah O’Meara, Valeriu Ohan, Charles Olney, Doug Ormond, Agnes Oszlanczi, Yoke Fei Pang, Barbora Pardubska, Naomi Park, Aaron Parmar, Gaurang Patel, Maggie Payne, Sharon Peacock, Arabella Petersen, Deborah Plowman, Tom Preston, Michael Quail, Richard Rance, Suzannah Rawlings, Nicholas Redshaw, Joe Reynolds, Mark Reynolds, Simon Rice, Matt Richardson, Connor Roberts, Katrina Robinson, Melanie Robinson, David Robinson, Hazel Rogers, Eduardo Martin Rojo, Daljit Roopra, Mark Rose, Luke Rudd, Ramin Sadri, Nicholas Salmon, David Saul, Frank Schwach, Phil Seekings, Alison Simms, Matt Sinnott, Shanthi Sivadasan, Bart Siwek, Dale Sizer, Kenneth Skeldon, Jason Skelton, Joanna Slater-Tunstill, Lisa Sloper, Nathalie Smerdon, Chris Smith, Christen Smith, James Smith, Katie Smith, Michelle Smith, Sean Smith, Tina Smith, Leighton Sneade, Carmen Diaz Soria, Catarina Sousa, Emily Souster, Andrew Sparkes, Michael Spencer-Chapman, Janet Squares, Robert Stanley, Claire Steed, Tim Stickland, Ian Still, Mike Stratton, Michelle Strickland, Allen Swann, Agnieszka Swiatkowska, Neil Sycamore, Emma Swift, Edward Symons, Suzanne Szluha, Emma Taluy, Nunu Tao, Katy Taylor, Sam Taylor, Stacey Thompson, Mark Thompson, Mark Thomson, Nicholas Thomson, Scott Thurston, Dee Toombs, Benjamin Topping, Jaime Tovar-Corona, Daniel Ungureanu, James Uphill, Jana Urbanova, Philip Jansen Van, Valerie Vancollie, Paul Voak, Danielle Walker, Matthew Walker, Matt Waller, Gary Ward, Charlie Weatherhogg, Niki Webb, Alan Wells, Eloise Wells, Luke Westwood, Theo Whipp, Thomas Whiteley, Georgia Whitton, Sara Widaa, Mia Williams, Mark Wilson, and Sean Wright

Subjects
SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19, antibody escape, neutralizing antibodies, infectivity, spike mutation, Biology (General), QH301-705.5
Abstract

Summary: We report severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) spike ΔH69/V70 in multiple independent lineages, often occurring after acquisition of receptor binding motif replacements such as N439K and Y453F, known to increase binding affinity to the ACE2 receptor and confer antibody escape. In vitro, we show that, although ΔH69/V70 itself is not an antibody evasion mechanism, it increases infectivity associated with enhanced incorporation of cleaved spike into virions. ΔH69/V70 is able to partially rescue infectivity of spike proteins that have acquired N439K and Y453F escape mutations by increased spike incorporation. In addition, replacement of the H69 and V70 residues in the Alpha variant B.1.1.7 spike (where ΔH69/V70 occurs naturally) impairs spike incorporation and entry efficiency of the B.1.1.7 spike pseudotyped virus. Alpha variant B.1.1.7 spike mediates faster kinetics of cell-cell fusion than wild-type Wuhan-1 D614G, dependent on ΔH69/V70. Therefore, as ΔH69/V70 compensates for immune escape mutations that impair infectivity, continued surveillance for deletions with functional effects is warranted.

Published
2021
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6. An extended genotyping framework for Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi, the cause of human typhoid

Author

Vanessa K. Wong, Stephen Baker, Thomas R. Connor, Derek Pickard, Andrew J. Page, Jayshree Dave, Niamh Murphy, Richard Holliman, Armine Sefton, Michael Millar, Zoe A. Dyson, Gordon Dougan, Kathryn E. Holt, and International Typhoid Consortium

Subjects
Science
Abstract

Typhoid fever is caused by Salmonella enterica serovar Typhi (S. Typhi). This study examines ∼2,000 clinical isolates of S. Typhi to show highly structured/geographically restricted genomes except rapidly disseminating H58 subclade, and design a genotyping framework for tracking the disease.

Published
2016
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7. What’s in a Name? Species-Wide Whole-Genome Sequencing Resolves Invasive and Noninvasive Lineages of Salmonella enterica Serotype Paratyphi B

Author

Thomas R. Connor, Sian V. Owen, Gemma Langridge, Steve Connell, Satheesh Nair, Sandra Reuter, Timothy J. Dallman, Jukka Corander, Kristine C. Tabing, Simon Le Hello, Maria Fookes, Benoît Doublet, Zhemin Zhou, Theresa Feltwell, Matthew J. Ellington, Silvia Herrera, Matthew Gilmour, Axel Cloeckaert, Mark Achtman, Julian Parkhill, John Wain, Elizabeth De Pinna, François-Xavier Weill, Tansy Peters, and Nick Thomson

Subjects
Microbiology, QR1-502
Abstract

ABSTRACT For 100 years, it has been obvious that Salmonella enterica strains sharing the serotype with the formula 1,4,[5],12:b:1,2—now known as Paratyphi B—can cause diseases ranging from serious systemic infections to self-limiting gastroenteritis. Despite considerable predicted diversity between strains carrying the common Paratyphi B serotype, there remain few methods that subdivide the group into groups that are congruent with their disease phenotypes. Paratyphi B therefore represents one of the canonical examples in Salmonella where serotyping combined with classical microbiological tests fails to provide clinically informative information. Here, we use genomics to provide the first high-resolution view of this serotype, placing it into a wider genomic context of the Salmonella enterica species. These analyses reveal why it has been impossible to subdivide this serotype based upon phenotypic and limited molecular approaches. By examining the genomic data in detail, we are able to identify common features that correlate with strains of clinical importance. The results presented here provide new diagnostic targets, as well as posing important new questions about the basis for the invasive disease phenotype observed in a subset of strains. IMPORTANCE Salmonella enterica strains carrying the serotype Paratyphi B have long been known to possess Jekyll and Hyde characteristics; some cause gastroenteritis, while others cause serious invasive disease. Understanding what makes up the population of strains carrying this serotype, as well as the source of their invasive disease, is a 100-year-old puzzle that we address here using genomics. Our analysis provides the first high-resolution view of this serotype, placing strains carrying serotype Paratyphi B into the wider genomic context of the Salmonella enterica species. This work reveals a history of disease dating back to the middle ages, caused by a group of distinct lineages with various abilities to cause invasive disease. By quantifying the key genomic differences between the invasive and noninvasive populations, we are able to identify key virulence-related targets that can form the basis of simple, rapid, point-of-care tests.

Published
2016
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8. Emergence of a New Epidemic Neisseria meningitidis Serogroup A Clone in the African Meningitis Belt: High-Resolution Picture of Genomic Changes That Mediate Immune Evasion

Author

Araceli Lamelas, Simon R. Harris, Katharina Röltgen, Jean-Pierre Dangy, Julia Hauser, Robert A. Kingsley, Thomas R. Connor, Ali Sie, Abraham Hodgson, Gordon Dougan, Julian Parkhill, Stephen D. Bentley, and Gerd Pluschke

Subjects
Microbiology, QR1-502
Abstract

ABSTRACT In the African “meningitis belt,” outbreaks of meningococcal meningitis occur in cycles, representing a model for the role of host-pathogen interactions in epidemic processes. The periodicity of the epidemics is not well understood, nor is it currently possible to predict them. In our longitudinal colonization and disease surveys, we have observed waves of clonal replacement with the same serogroup, suggesting that immunity to noncapsular antigens plays a significant role in natural herd immunity. Here, through comparative genomic analysis of 100 meningococcal isolates, we provide a high-resolution view of the evolutionary changes that occurred during clonal replacement of a hypervirulent meningococcal clone (ST-7) by a descendant clone (ST-2859). We show that the majority of genetic changes are due to homologous recombination of laterally acquired DNA, with more than 20% of these events involving acquisition of DNA from other species. Signals of adaptation to evade herd immunity were indicated by genomic hot spots of recombination. Most striking is the high frequency of changes involving the pgl locus, which determines the glycosylation patterns of major protein antigens. High-frequency changes were also observed for genes involved in the regulation of pilus expression and the synthesis of Maf3 adhesins, highlighting the importance of these surface features in host-pathogen interaction and immune evasion. IMPORTANCE While established meningococcal capsule polysaccharide vaccines are protective through the induction of anticapsular antibodies, findings of our longitudinal studies in the African meningitis belt have indicated that immunity to noncapsular antigens plays a significant role in natural herd immunity. Our results show that meningococci evade herd immunity through the rapid homologous replacement of just a few key genomic loci that affect noncapsular cell surface components. Identification of recombination hot spots thus represents an eminent approach to gain insight into targets of protective natural immune responses. Moreover, our results highlight the role of the dynamics of the protein glycosylation repertoire in immune evasion by Neisseria meningitidis. These results have major implications for the design of next-generation protein-based subunit vaccines.

Published
2014
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9. Species-wide whole genome sequencing reveals historical global spread and recent local persistence in Shigella flexneri

Author

Thomas R Connor, Clare R Barker, Kate S Baker, François-Xavier Weill, Kaisar Ali Talukder, Anthony M Smith, Stephen Baker, Malika Gouali, Duy Pham Thanh, Ishrat Jahan Azmi, Wanderley Dias da Silveira, Torsten Semmler, Lothar H Wieler, Claire Jenkins, Alejandro Cravioto, Shah M Faruque, Julian Parkhill, Dong Wook Kim, Karen H Keddy, and Nicholas R Thomson

Subjects
Shigella, dysentery, genomic, pathogen evolution, Medicine, Science, Biology (General), QH301-705.5
Abstract

Shigella flexneri is the most common cause of bacterial dysentery in low-income countries. Despite this, S. flexneri remains largely unexplored from a genomic standpoint and is still described using a vocabulary based on serotyping reactions developed over half-a-century ago. Here we combine whole genome sequencing with geographical and temporal data to examine the natural history of the species. Our analysis subdivides S. flexneri into seven phylogenetic groups (PGs); each containing two-or-more serotypes and characterised by distinct virulence gene complement and geographic range. Within the S. flexneri PGs we identify geographically restricted sub-lineages that appear to have persistently colonised regions for many decades to over 100 years. Although we found abundant evidence of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) determinant acquisition, our dataset shows no evidence of subsequent intercontinental spread of antimicrobial resistant strains. The pattern of colonisation and AMR gene acquisition suggest that S. flexneri has a distinct life-cycle involving local persistence.

Published
2015
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10. Evaluating the risk of SARS-CoV-2 reinfection with the Omicron or Delta variant in Wales, UK.

Author

Mark Postans, Nicole Pacchiarini, Jiao Song, Simon Cottrell, Catie Williams, Andrew Beazer, Catherine Moore, Thomas R Connor, and Christopher Williams

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

Recent studies suggest an increased risk of reinfection with the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant compared with previous variants, potentially due to an increased ability to escape immunity specific to older variants, high antigenic divergence of Omicron from earlier virus variants as well as its altered cell entry pathway. The present study sought to investigate epidemiological evidence for differential SARS-CoV-2 reinfection intervals and incidence rates for the Delta versus Omicron variants within Wales. Reinfections in Wales up to February 2022 were defined using genotyping and whole genome sequencing. The median inter-infection intervals for Delta and Omicron were 226 and 192 days, respectively. An incidence rate ratio of 2.17 for reinfection with Omicron compared to Delta was estimated using a conditional Poisson model, which accounted for several factors including sample collection date, age group, area of residence, vaccination and travel status. These findings are consistent with an increased risk of reinfection with the Omicron variant, and highlight the value of monitoring emerging variants that have the potential for causing further waves of cases.

Published
2024
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11. Changes in symptomatology, reinfection, and transmissibility associated with the SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7: an ecological study

Author

Mark S Graham, PhD, Carole H Sudre, PhD, Anna May, MA, Michela Antonelli, PhD, Benjamin Murray, MSc, Thomas Varsavsky, MSc, Kerstin Kläser, MSc, Liane S Canas, PhD, Erika Molteni, PhD, Marc Modat, PhD, David A Drew, PhD, Long H Nguyen, MD, Lorenzo Polidori, MSc, Somesh Selvachandran, MSc, Christina Hu, MA, Joan Capdevila, PhD, Alexander Hammers, ProfPhD, Andrew T Chan, ProfMD, Jonathan Wolf, MA, Tim D Spector, ProfPhD, Claire J Steves, PhD, Sebastien Ourselin, ProfPhD, Cherian Koshy, Amy Ash, Emma Wise, Nathan Moore, Matilde Mori, Nick Cortes, Jessica Lynch, Stephen Kidd, Derek J Fairley, Tanya Curran, James P McKenna, Helen Adams, Christophe Fraser, Tanya Golubchik, David Bonsall, Mohammed O Hassan-Ibrahim, Cassandra S Malone, Benjamin J Cogger, Michelle Wantoch, Nicola Reynolds, Ben Warne, Joshua Maksimovic, Karla Spellman, Kathryn McCluggage, Michaela John, Robert Beer, Safiah Afifi, Sian Morgan, Angela Marchbank, Anna Price, Christine Kitchen, Huw Gulliver, Ian Merrick, Joel Southgate, Martyn Guest, Robert Munn, Trudy Workman, Thomas R Connor, William Fuller, Catherine Bresner, Luke B Snell, Amita Patel, Themoula Charalampous, Gaia Nebbia, Rahul Batra, Jonathan Edgeworth, Samuel C Robson, Angela H Beckett, David M Aanensen, Anthony P Underwood, Corin A Yeats, Khalil Abudahab, Ben EW Taylor, Mirko Menegazzo, Gemma Clark, Wendy Smith, Manjinder Khakh, Vicki M Fleming, Michelle M Lister, Hannah C Howson-Wells, Louise Berry, Tim Boswell, Amelia Joseph, Iona Willingham, Carl Jones, Christopher Holmes, Paul Bird, Thomas Helmer, Karlie Fallon, Julian Tang, Veena Raviprakash, Sharon Campbell, Nicola Sheriff, Victoria Blakey, Lesley-Anne Williams, Matthew W Loose, Nadine Holmes, Christopher Moore, Matthew Carlile, Victoria Wright, Fei Sang, Johnny Debebe, Francesc Coll, Adrian W Signell, Gilberto Betancor, Harry D Wilson, Sahar Eldirdiri, Anita Kenyon, Thomas Davis, Oliver G Pybus, Louis du Plessis, Alex E Zarebski, Jayna Raghwani, Moritz UG Kraemer, Sarah Francois, Stephen W Attwood, Tetyana I Vasylyeva, Marina Escalera Zamudio, Bernardo Gutierrez, M. Estee Torok, William L Hamilton, Ian G Goodfellow, Grant Hall, Aminu S Jahun, Yasmin Chaudhry, Myra Hosmillo, Malte L Pinckert, Iliana Georgana, Samuel Moses, Hannah Lowe, Luke Bedford, Jonathan Moore, Susanne Stonehouse, Chloe L Fisher, Ali R Awan, John BoYes, Judith Breuer, Kathryn Ann Harris, Julianne Rose Brown, Divya Shah, Laura Atkinson, Jack CD Lee, Nathaniel Storey, Flavia Flaviani, Adela Alcolea-Medina, Rebecca Williams, Gabrielle Vernet, Michael R Chapman, Lisa J Levett, Judith Heaney, Wendy Chatterton, Monika Pusok, Li Xu-McCrae, Darren L Smith, Matthew Bashton, Gregory R Young, Alison Holmes, Paul Anthony Randell, Alison Cox, Pinglawathee Madona, Frances Bolt, James Price, Siddharth Mookerjee, Manon Ragonnet-Cronin, Fabricia F. Nascimento, David Jorgensen, Igor Siveroni, Rob Johnson, Olivia Boyd, Lily Geidelberg, Erik M Volz, Aileen Rowan, Graham P Taylor, Katherine L Smollett, Nicholas J Loman, Joshua Quick, Claire McMurray, Joanne Stockton, Sam Nicholls, Will Rowe, Radoslaw Poplawski, Alan McNally, Rocio T Martinez Nunez, Jenifer Mason, Trevor I Robinson, Elaine O'Toole, Joanne Watts, Cassie Breen, Angela Cowell, Graciela Sluga, Nicholas W Machin, Shazaad S Y Ahmad, Ryan P George, Fenella Halstead, Venkat Sivaprakasam, Wendy Hogsden, Chris J Illingworth, Chris Jackson, Emma C Thomson, James G Shepherd, Patawee Asamaphan, Marc O Niebel, Kathy K Li, Rajiv N Shah, Natasha G Jesudason, Lily Tong, Alice Broos, Daniel Mair, Jenna Nichols, Stephen N Carmichael, Kyriaki Nomikou, Elihu Aranday-Cortes, Natasha Johnson, Igor Starinskij, Ana da Silva Filipe, David L Robertson, Richard J Orton, Joseph Hughes, Sreenu Vattipally, Joshua B Singer, Seema Nickbakhsh, Antony D Hale, Louissa R Macfarlane-Smith, Katherine L Harper, Holli Carden, Yusri Taha, Brendan AI Payne, Shirelle Burton-Fanning, Sheila Waugh, Jennifer Collins, Gary Eltringham, Steven Rushton, Sarah O'Brien, Amanda Bradley, Alasdair Maclean, Guy Mollett, Rachel Blacow, Kate E Templeton, Martin P McHugh, Rebecca Dewar, Elizabeth Wastenge, Samir Dervisevic, Rachael Stanley, Emma J Meader, Lindsay Coupland, Louise Smith, Clive Graham, Edward Barton, Debra Padgett, Garren Scott, Emma Swindells, Jane Greenaway, Andrew Nelson, Clare M McCann, Wen C Yew, Monique Andersson, Timothy Peto, Anita Justice, David Eyre, Derrick Crook, Tim J Sloan, Nichola Duckworth, Sarah Walsh, Anoop J Chauhan, Sharon Glaysher, Kelly Bicknell, Sarah Wyllie, Scott Elliott, Allyson Lloyd, Robert Impey, Nick Levene, Lynn Monaghan, Declan T Bradley, Tim Wyatt, Elias Allara, Clare Pearson, Husam Osman, Andrew Bosworth, Esther Robinson, Peter Muir, Ian B Vipond, Richard Hopes, Hannah M Pymont, Stephanie Hutchings, Martin D Curran, Surendra Parmar, Angie Lackenby, Tamyo Mbisa, Steven Platt, Shahjahan Miah, David Bibby, Carmen Manso, Jonathan Hubb, Meera Chand, Gavin Dabrera, Mary Ramsay, Daniel Bradshaw, Alicia Thornton, Richard Myers, Ulf Schaefer, Natalie Groves, Eileen Gallagher, David Lee, David Williams, Nicholas Ellaby, Ian Harrison, Hassan Hartman, Nikos Manesis, Vineet Patel, Chloe Bishop, Vicki Chalker, Juan Ledesma, Katherine A Twohig, Matthew T.G. Holden, Sharif Shaaban, Alec Birchley, Alexander Adams, Alisha Davies, Amy Gaskin, Amy Plimmer, Bree Gatica-Wilcox, Caoimhe McKerr, Catherine Moore, Chris Williams, David Heyburn, Elen De Lacy, Ember Hilvers, Fatima Downing, Giri Shankar, Hannah Jones, Hibo Asad, Jason Coombes, Joanne Watkins, Johnathan M Evans, Laia Fina, Laura Gifford, Lauren Gilbert, Lee Graham, Malorie Perry, Mari Morgan, Matthew Bull, Michelle Cronin, Nicole Pacchiarini, Noel Craine, Rachel Jones, Robin Howe, Sally Corden, Sara Rey, Sara Kumziene-SummerhaYes, Sarah Taylor, Simon Cottrell, Sophie Jones, Sue Edwards, Justin O'Grady, Andrew J Page, Alison E Mather, David J Baker, Steven Rudder, Alp Aydin, Gemma L Kay, Alexander J Trotter, Nabil-Fareed Alikhan, Leonardo de Oliveira Martins, Thanh Le-Viet, Lizzie Meadows, Anna Casey, Liz Ratcliffe, David A Simpson, Zoltan Molnar, Thomas Thompson, Erwan Acheson, Jane AH Masoli, Bridget A Knight, Sian Ellard, Cressida Auckland, Christopher R Jones, Tabitha W Mahungu, Dianne Irish-Tavares, Tanzina Haque, Jennifer Hart, Eric Witele, Melisa Louise Fenton, Ashok Dadrah, Amanda Symmonds, Tranprit Saluja, Yann Bourgeois, Garry P Scarlett, Katie F Loveson, Salman Goudarzi, Christopher Fearn, Kate Cook, Hannah Dent, Hannah Paul, David G Partridge, Mohammad Raza, Cariad Evans, Kate Johnson, Steven Liggett, Paul Baker, Stephen Bonner, Sarah Essex, Ronan A Lyons, Kordo Saeed, Adhyana I.K Mahanama, Buddhini Samaraweera, Siona Silveira, Emanuela Pelosi, Eleri Wilson-Davies, Rachel J Williams, Mark Kristiansen, Sunando Roy, Charlotte A Williams, Marius Cotic, Nadua Bayzid, Adam P Westhorpe, John A Hartley, Riaz Jannoo, Helen L Lowe, Angeliki Karamani, Leah Ensell, Jacqui A Prieto, Sarah Jeremiah, Dimitris Grammatopoulos, Sarojini Pandey, Lisa Berry, Katie Jones, Alex Richter, Andrew Beggs, Angus Best, Benita Percival, Jeremy Mirza, Oliver Megram, Megan Mayhew, Liam Crawford, Fiona Ashcroft, Emma Moles-Garcia, Nicola Cumley, Colin P Smith, Giselda Bucca, Andrew R Hesketh, Beth Blane, Sophia T Girgis, Danielle Leek, Sushmita Sridhar, Sally Forrest, Claire Cormie, Harmeet K Gill, Joana Dias, Ellen E Higginson, Mailis Maes, Jamie Young, Leanne M Kermack, Ravi Kumar Gupta, Catherine Ludden, Sharon J Peacock, Sophie Palmer, Carol M Churcher, Nazreen F Hadjirin, Alessandro M Carabelli, Ellena Brooks, Kim S Smith, Katerina Galai, Georgina M McManus, Chris Ruis, Rose K Davidson, Andrew Rambaut, Thomas Williams, Carlos E Balcazar, Michael D Gallagher, Áine O'Toole, Stefan Rooke, Verity Hill, Kathleen A Williamson, Thomas D Stanton, Stephen L Michell, Claire M Bewshea, Ben Temperton, Michelle L Michelsen, Joanna Warwick-Dugdale, Robin Manley, Audrey Farbos, James W Harrison, Christine M Sambles, David J Studholme, Aaron R Jeffries, Alistair C Darby, Julian A Hiscox, Steve Paterson, Miren Iturriza-Gomara, Kathryn A Jackson, Anita O Lucaci, Edith E Vamos, Margaret Hughes, Lucille Rainbow, Richard Eccles, Charlotte Nelson, Mark Whitehead, Lance Turtle, Sam T Haldenby, Richard Gregory, Matthew Gemmell, Claudia Wierzbicki, Hermione J Webster, Thushan I de Silva, Nikki Smith, Adrienn Angyal, Benjamin B Lindsey, Danielle C Groves, Luke R Green, Dennis Wang, Timothy M Freeman, Matthew D Parker, Alexander J Keeley, Paul J Parsons, Rachel M Tucker, Rebecca Brown, Matthew Wyles, Max Whiteley, Peijun Zhang, Marta Gallis, Stavroula F Louka, Chrystala Constantinidou, Meera Unnikrishnan, Sascha Ott, Jeffrey K.J. Cheng, Hannah E. Bridgewater, Lucy R. Frost, Grace Taylor-Joyce, Richard Stark, Laura Baxter, Mohammad T. Alam, Paul E Brown, Dinesh Aggarwal, Alberto C Cerda, Tammy V Merrill, Rebekah E Wilson, Patrick C McClure, Joseph G Chappell, Theocharis Tsoleridis, Jonathan Ball, David Buck, John A Todd, Angie Green, Amy Trebes, George MacIntyre-Cockett, Mariateresa de Cesare, Alex Alderton, Roberto Amato, Cristina V Ariani, Mathew A Beale, Charlotte Beaver, Katherine L Bellis, Emma Betteridge, James Bonfield, John Danesh, Matthew J Dorman, Eleanor Drury, Ben W Farr, Luke Foulser, Sonia Goncalves, Scott Goodwin, Marina Gourtovaia, Ewan M Harrison, David K Jackson, Dorota Jamrozy, Ian Johnston, Leanne Kane, Sally Kay, Jon-Paul Keatley, Dominic Kwiatkowski, Cordelia F Langford, Mara Lawniczak, Laura Letchford, Rich Livett, Stephanie Lo, Inigo Martincorena, Samantha McGuigan, Rachel Nelson, Steve Palmer, Naomi R Park, Minal Patel, Liam Prestwood, Christoph Puethe, Michael A Quail, Shavanthi Rajatileka, Carol Scott, Lesley Shirley, John Sillitoe, Michael H Spencer Chapman, Scott AJ Thurston, Gerry Tonkin-Hill, Danni Weldon, Diana Rajan, Iraad F Bronner, Louise Aigrain, Nicholas M Redshaw, Stefanie V Lensing, Robert Davies, Andrew Whitwham, Jennifier Liddle, Kevin Lewis, Jaime M Tovar-Corona, Steven Leonard, Jillian Durham, Andrew R Bassett, Shane McCarthy, Robin J Moll, Keith James, Karen Oliver, Alex Makunin, Jeff Barrett, and Rory N Gunson

Subjects
Public aspects of medicine, RA1-1270
Abstract

Summary: Background: The SARS-CoV-2 variant B.1.1.7 was first identified in December, 2020, in England. We aimed to investigate whether increases in the proportion of infections with this variant are associated with differences in symptoms or disease course, reinfection rates, or transmissibility. Methods: We did an ecological study to examine the association between the regional proportion of infections with the SARS-CoV-2 B.1.1.7 variant and reported symptoms, disease course, rates of reinfection, and transmissibility. Data on types and duration of symptoms were obtained from longitudinal reports from users of the COVID Symptom Study app who reported a positive test for COVID-19 between Sept 28 and Dec 27, 2020 (during which the prevalence of B.1.1.7 increased most notably in parts of the UK). From this dataset, we also estimated the frequency of possible reinfection, defined as the presence of two reported positive tests separated by more than 90 days with a period of reporting no symptoms for more than 7 days before the second positive test. The proportion of SARS-CoV-2 infections with the B.1.1.7 variant across the UK was estimated with use of genomic data from the COVID-19 Genomics UK Consortium and data from Public Health England on spike-gene target failure (a non-specific indicator of the B.1.1.7 variant) in community cases in England. We used linear regression to examine the association between reported symptoms and proportion of B.1.1.7. We assessed the Spearman correlation between the proportion of B.1.1.7 cases and number of reinfections over time, and between the number of positive tests and reinfections. We estimated incidence for B.1.1.7 and previous variants, and compared the effective reproduction number, Rt, for the two incidence estimates. Findings: From Sept 28 to Dec 27, 2020, positive COVID-19 tests were reported by 36 920 COVID Symptom Study app users whose region was known and who reported as healthy on app sign-up. We found no changes in reported symptoms or disease duration associated with B.1.1.7. For the same period, possible reinfections were identified in 249 (0·7% [95% CI 0·6–0·8]) of 36 509 app users who reported a positive swab test before Oct 1, 2020, but there was no evidence that the frequency of reinfections was higher for the B.1.1.7 variant than for pre-existing variants. Reinfection occurrences were more positively correlated with the overall regional rise in cases (Spearman correlation 0·56–0·69 for South East, London, and East of England) than with the regional increase in the proportion of infections with the B.1.1.7 variant (Spearman correlation 0·38–0·56 in the same regions), suggesting B.1.1.7 does not substantially alter the risk of reinfection. We found a multiplicative increase in the Rt of B.1.1.7 by a factor of 1·35 (95% CI 1·02–1·69) relative to pre-existing variants. However, Rt fell below 1 during regional and national lockdowns, even in regions with high proportions of infections with the B.1.1.7 variant. Interpretation: The lack of change in symptoms identified in this study indicates that existing testing and surveillance infrastructure do not need to change specifically for the B.1.1.7 variant. In addition, given that there was no apparent increase in the reinfection rate, vaccines are likely to remain effective against the B.1.1.7 variant. Funding: Zoe Global, Department of Health (UK), Wellcome Trust, Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (UK), National Institute for Health Research (UK), Medical Research Council (UK), Alzheimer's Society.

Published
2021
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12. Understanding and responding to COVID-19 in Wales: protocol for a privacy-protecting data platform for enhanced epidemiology and evaluation of interventions

Author

Chris Davies, Simon Thompson, Sinead Brophy, Tamas Szakmany, Amy Mizen, Richard Fry, Jan Davies, Gareth John, Chris Orton, James Rafferty, Christopher Williams, Gareth I Davies, Rowena Bailey, Joseph Hollinghurst, Samantha L Turner, Lee Au-Yeung, Lynsey Cross, Mike B Gravenor, Biagio Lucini, Daniel Rh Thomas, Chris Emmerson, Simon Cottrell, Thomas R Connor, Chris Taylor, Richard J Pugh, Simon Scourfield, Joe Hunt, Anne M Cunningham, and Kathryn Helliwell

Subjects
Medicine
Abstract

Introduction The emergence of the novel respiratory SARS-CoV-2 and subsequent COVID-19 pandemic have required rapid assimilation of population-level data to understand and control the spread of infection in the general and vulnerable populations. Rapid analyses are needed to inform policy development and target interventions to at-risk groups to prevent serious health outcomes. We aim to provide an accessible research platform to determine demographic, socioeconomic and clinical risk factors for infection, morbidity and mortality of COVID-19, to measure the impact of COVID-19 on healthcare utilisation and long-term health, and to enable the evaluation of natural experiments of policy interventions.Methods and analysis Two privacy-protecting population-level cohorts have been created and derived from multisourced demographic and healthcare data. The C20 cohort consists of 3.2 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2020 with follow-up until 31 May 2020. The complete cohort dataset will be updated monthly with some individual datasets available daily. The C16 cohort consists of 3 million people in Wales on the 1 January 2016 with follow-up to 31 December 2019. C16 is designed as a counterfactual cohort to provide contextual comparative population data on disease, health service utilisation and mortality. Study outcomes will: (a) characterise the epidemiology of COVID-19, (b) assess socioeconomic and demographic influences on infection and outcomes, (c) measure the impact of COVID-19 on short -term and longer-term population outcomes and (d) undertake studies on the transmission and spatial spread of infection.Ethics and dissemination The Secure Anonymised Information Linkage-independent Information Governance Review Panel has approved this study. The study findings will be presented to policy groups, public meetings, national and international conferences, and published in peer-reviewed journals.

Published
2020
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13. Correction: Signatures of Adaptation in Human Invasive Salmonella Typhimurium ST313 Populations from Sub-Saharan Africa.

Author

Chinyere K Okoro, Lars Barquist, Thomas R Connor, Simon R Harris, Simon Clare, Mark P Stevens, Mark J Arends, Christine Hale, Leanne Kane, Derek J Pickard, Jennifer Hill, Katherine Harcourt, Julian Parkhill, Gordon Dougan, and Robert A Kingsley

Subjects
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine, RC955-962, Public aspects of medicine, RA1-1270
Published
2015
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14. Signatures of adaptation in human invasive Salmonella Typhimurium ST313 populations from sub-Saharan Africa.

Author

Chinyere K Okoro, Lars Barquist, Thomas R Connor, Simon R Harris, Simon Clare, Mark P Stevens, Mark J Arends, Christine Hale, Leanne Kane, Derek J Pickard, Jennifer Hill, Katherine Harcourt, Julian Parkhill, Gordon Dougan, and Robert A Kingsley

Subjects
Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine, RC955-962, Public aspects of medicine, RA1-1270
Abstract

Two lineages of Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium (S. Typhimurium) of multi-locus sequence type ST313 have been linked with the emergence of invasive Salmonella disease across sub-Saharan Africa. The expansion of these lineages has a temporal association with the HIV pandemic and antibiotic usage. We analysed the whole genome sequence of 129 ST313 isolates representative of the two lineages and found evidence of lineage-specific genome degradation, with some similarities to that observed in S. Typhi. Individual ST313 S. Typhimurium isolates exhibit a distinct metabolic signature and modified enteropathogenesis in both a murine and cattle model of colitis, compared to S. Typhimurium outside of the ST313 lineages. These data define phenotypes that distinguish ST313 isolates from other S. Typhimurium and may represent adaptation to a distinct pathogenesis and lifestyle linked to an-immuno-compromised human population.

Published
2015
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15. Novel R pipeline for analyzing Biolog Phenotypic MicroArray data.

Author

Minna Vehkala, Mikhail Shubin, Thomas R Connor, Nicholas R Thomson, and Jukka Corander

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

Data produced by Biolog Phenotype MicroArrays are longitudinal measurements of cells' respiration on distinct substrates. We introduce a three-step pipeline to analyze phenotypic microarray data with novel procedures for grouping, normalization and effect identification. Grouping and normalization are standard problems in the analysis of phenotype microarrays defined as categorizing bacterial responses into active and non-active, and removing systematic errors from the experimental data, respectively. We expand existing solutions by introducing an important assumption that active and non-active bacteria manifest completely different metabolism and thus should be treated separately. Effect identification, in turn, provides new insights into detecting differing respiration patterns between experimental conditions, e.g. between different combinations of strains and temperatures, as not only the main effects but also their interactions can be evaluated. In the effect identification, the multilevel data are effectively processed by a hierarchical model in the Bayesian framework. The pipeline is tested on a data set of 12 phenotypic plates with bacterium Yersinia enterocolitica. Our pipeline is implemented in R language on the top of opm R package and is freely available for research purposes.

Published
2015
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16. Historical zoonoses and other changes in host tropism of Staphylococcus aureus, identified by phylogenetic analysis of a population dataset.

Author

Marcus A Shepheard, Vicki M Fleming, Thomas R Connor, Jukka Corander, Edward J Feil, Christophe Fraser, and William P Hanage

Subjects
Medicine, Science
Abstract

BACKGROUND:Staphylococcus aureus exhibits tropisms to many distinct animal hosts. While spillover events can occur wherever there is an interface between host species, changes in host tropism only occur with the establishment of sustained transmission in the new host species, leading to clonal expansion. Although the genomic variation underpinning adaptation in S. aureus genotypes infecting bovids and poultry has been well characterized the frequency of switches from one host to another remains obscure. We sought to identify sustained switches in host tropism in the S. aureus population, both anthroponotic and zoonotic, and their distribution over the species phylogeny. METHODOLOGIES/RESULTS: We have used a sample of 3042 isolates, representing 696 distinct MLST genotypes, from a well-established database (www.mlst.net). Using an empirical parsimony approach (AdaptML) we have investigated the distribution of switches in host association between both human and non-human (henceforth referred to as animal) hosts. We reconstructed a credible description of past events in the form of a phylogenetic tree; the nodes and leaves of which are statistically associated with either human or animal habitats, estimated from extant host-association and the degree of sequence divergence between genotypes. We identified 15 likely historical switching events; 13 anthroponoses and two zoonoses. Importantly, we identified two human-associated clade candidates (CC25 and CC59) that have arisen from animal-associated ancestors; this demonstrates that a human-specific lineage can emerge from an animal host. We also highlight novel rabbit-associated genotypes arising from a human ancestor. CONCLUSIONS:S. aureus is an organism with the capacity to switch into and adapt to novel hosts, even after long periods of isolation in a single host species. Based on this evidence, animal-adapted S. aureus lineages exhibiting resistance to antibiotics must be considered a major threat to public health, as they can adapt to the human population.

Published
2013
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17. Targeted restoration of the intestinal microbiota with a simple, defined bacteriotherapy resolves relapsing Clostridium difficile disease in mice.

Author

Trevor D Lawley, Simon Clare, Alan W Walker, Mark D Stares, Thomas R Connor, Claire Raisen, David Goulding, Roland Rad, Fernanda Schreiber, Cordelia Brandt, Laura J Deakin, Derek J Pickard, Sylvia H Duncan, Harry J Flint, Taane G Clark, Julian Parkhill, and Gordon Dougan

Subjects
Immunologic diseases. Allergy, RC581-607, Biology (General), QH301-705.5
Abstract

Relapsing C. difficile disease in humans is linked to a pathological imbalance within the intestinal microbiota, termed dysbiosis, which remains poorly understood. We show that mice infected with epidemic C. difficile (genotype 027/BI) develop highly contagious, chronic intestinal disease and persistent dysbiosis characterized by a distinct, simplified microbiota containing opportunistic pathogens and altered metabolite production. Chronic C. difficile 027/BI infection was refractory to vancomycin treatment leading to relapsing disease. In contrast, treatment of C. difficile 027/BI infected mice with feces from healthy mice rapidly restored a diverse, healthy microbiota and resolved C. difficile disease and contagiousness. We used this model to identify a simple mixture of six phylogenetically diverse intestinal bacteria, including novel species, which can re-establish a health-associated microbiota and clear C. difficile 027/BI infection from mice. Thus, targeting a dysbiotic microbiota with a defined mixture of phylogenetically diverse bacteria can trigger major shifts in the microbial community structure that displaces C. difficile and, as a result, resolves disease and contagiousness. Further, we demonstrate a rational approach to harness the therapeutic potential of health-associated microbial communities to treat C. difficile disease and potentially other forms of intestinal dysbiosis.

Published
2012
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18. Salmonella bongori provides insights into the evolution of the Salmonellae.

Author

Maria Fookes, Gunnar N Schroeder, Gemma C Langridge, Carlos J Blondel, Caterina Mammina, Thomas R Connor, Helena Seth-Smith, Georgios S Vernikos, Keith S Robinson, Mandy Sanders, Nicola K Petty, Robert A Kingsley, Andreas J Bäumler, Sean-Paul Nuccio, Inés Contreras, Carlos A Santiviago, Duncan Maskell, Paul Barrow, Tom Humphrey, Antonino Nastasi, Mark Roberts, Gad Frankel, Julian Parkhill, Gordon Dougan, and Nicholas R Thomson

Subjects
Immunologic diseases. Allergy, RC581-607, Biology (General), QH301-705.5
Abstract

The genus Salmonella contains two species, S. bongori and S. enterica. Compared to the well-studied S. enterica there is a marked lack of information regarding the genetic makeup and diversity of S. bongori. S. bongori has been found predominantly associated with cold-blooded animals, but it can infect humans. To define the phylogeny of this species, and compare it to S. enterica, we have sequenced 28 isolates representing most of the known diversity of S. bongori. This cross-species analysis allowed us to confidently differentiate ancestral functions from those acquired following speciation, which include both metabolic and virulence-associated capacities. We show that, although S. bongori inherited a basic set of Salmonella common virulence functions, it has subsequently elaborated on this in a different direction to S. enterica. It is an established feature of S. enterica evolution that the acquisition of the type III secretion systems (T3SS-1 and T3SS-2) has been followed by the sequential acquisition of genes encoding secreted targets, termed effectors proteins. We show that this is also true of S. bongori, which has acquired an array of novel effector proteins (sboA-L). All but two of these effectors have no significant S. enterica homologues and instead are highly similar to those found in enteropathogenic Escherichia coli (EPEC). Remarkably, SboH is found to be a chimeric effector protein, encoded by a fusion of the T3SS-1 effector gene sopA and a gene highly similar to the EPEC effector nleH from enteropathogenic E. coli. We demonstrate that representatives of these new effectors are translocated and that SboH, similarly to NleH, blocks intrinsic apoptotic pathways while being targeted to the mitochondria by the SopA part of the fusion. This work suggests that S. bongori has inherited the ancestral Salmonella virulence gene set, but has adapted by incorporating virulence determinants that resemble those employed by EPEC.

Published
2011
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