SplitStrains, a tool to identify and separate mixed Mycobacterium tuberculosis infections from WGS data.
File(s)mgen000607.pdf (4.31 MB)
Published version
Author(s)
Gabbassov, Einar
Moreno-Molina, Miguel
Comas, Iñaki
Libbrecht, Maxwell
Chindelevitch, Leonid
Type
Journal Article
Abstract
The occurrence of multiple strains of a bacterial pathogen such as M. tuberculosis or C. difficile within a single human host, referred to as a mixed infection, has important implications for both healthcare and public health. However, methods for detecting it, and especially determining the proportion and identities of the underlying strains, from WGS (whole-genome sequencing) data, have been limited. In this paper we introduce SplitStrains, a novel method for addressing these challenges. Grounded in a rigorous statistical model, SplitStrains not only demonstrates superior performance in proportion estimation to other existing methods on both simulated as well as real M. tuberculosis data, but also successfully determines the identity of the underlying strains. We conclude that SplitStrains is a powerful addition to the existing toolkit of analytical methods for data coming from bacterial pathogens and holds the promise of enabling previously inaccessible conclusions to be drawn in the realm of public health microbiology.
Date Issued
2021-06-24
Date Acceptance
2021-05-10
Citation
Microbial Genomics, 2021, 7 (6), pp.1-16
ISSN
2057-5858
Publisher
Microbiology Society
Start Page
1
End Page
16
Journal / Book Title
Microbial Genomics
Volume
7
Issue
6
Copyright Statement
© 2021 The Authors
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between
the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. This article was made open access via a Publish and Read agreement between
the Microbiology Society and the corresponding author’s institution.
License URL
Identifier
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/34165419
Subjects
Mycobacterium tuberculosis
hetero-resistance
maximum likelihood
mixed infection
multiple-strain infection
public health microbiology
Publication Status
Published
Coverage Spatial
England
Date Publish Online
2021-06-24