Use of Comparative Genomics To Resolve an Unusual Case of Aminoglycoside Susceptibility in the Melioidosis Pathogen Burkholderia pseudomallei in Bangladesh.
Kaestli M., Farook S., Jilani MSA., Anwar S., Siddiqui TA., Mayo M., Podin Y., Webb JR., Dance DAB., Currie BJ.
Melioidosis is an emerging tropical infectious disease with a rising global burden caused by the environmental bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei. It is endemic in Southeast and South Asia, including Bangladesh. A rare aminoglycoside-susceptible B. pseudomallei isolate (Y2019) has recently been reported from a melioidosis patient in Dhaka, Bangladesh. To understand the geographical origins of Y2019, we subjected it and 10 other isolates from Bangladesh to whole-genome sequencing. In a phylogenetic tree with a global set of B. pseudomallei genomes, most Bangladeshi genomes clustered tightly within the Asian clade. In contrast, Y2019 was closely related to ST881 isolates from Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, a gentamicin-sensitive sequence type, suggesting infection in Borneo. Y2019 also contained the same gentamicin sensitivity conferring nonsynonymous mutation in the drug efflux pump encoding the amrB gene. In the absence of a full travel history, whole-genome sequencing and bioinformatics tools have revealed the likely origin of this rare isolate.