Isolates were selected to represent diverse sources and to include the six most prevalent sequence types (ST) and most frequent alleles for each locus.
The approach was investigated using 47 C. jejuni isolates, previously characterized by classical MLST, representing isolates from diverse environmental, animal and clinical sources and including the six most prevalent sequence types (ST) and the most frequent alleles.
The most prevalent sequence type was the mosaic PBP 2 X (86.6 %, 129/149).
The 115-bp sense-fragment is completely included within P16 exon-1, the most prevalent sequence investigated for P16 methylation.
ST-21 is one of the most prevalent sequence types of C. jejuni present in a broad range of hosts [ 14, 15, 17- 19, 46].
It is noteworthy that the most prevalent sequence UpsB-Q-1 (dCAGGGTTAAGGGTATAACTTTAGGGGTTAGGGTT) adopts a single structure which is stable in physiological conditions (37°C and 150 mM K+).
The most prevalent sequence type identified was ST-45, and the seasonality of isolation appears to closely correlate with the seasonality of human disease onset caused by this type.
As previously reported, ST23 was the most prevalent sequence type among serotype K1 K. pneumoniae isolates from both liver abscess and stool samples in the Asia Pacific region [ 2, 24- 26].
In brief, the motifs are: (i) "index", the most prevalent sequence; (ii) "major" variant, the second most common sequence and the single most prevalent variant of the index, with at least one amino acid mutation; (iii) "minor" variants, multiple different sequences, each with an incidence (percent occurrence) less than that of the major variant; and (iv) "unique" variants, each observed only once.
Among the typed isolates of C. jejuni (n = 1,104), ST-45 (n = 49) was the third most prevalent sequence type reported in the study (after ST-257 and ST-21) and highly restricted to cases reported between late April (week 17) and early August (week 32).
