Whole-Genome Single Nucleotide Polymorphism Based Phylogeny of Francisella tularensis and Its Application to the Development of a Strain Typing Assay

摘要

A low genetic diversity in Francisella tularensis has been documented.. Current DNA based genotyping methods for typing F. tularensis offer a limited and varying degree of subspecies, clade and strain level discrimination power. Whole genome sequencing is the most accurate and reliable method to identify, type and determine phylogenetic relationships among strains of a species. However, lower cost typing schemes are necessary in order to enable typing of hundreds or even thousands of isolates.