AUTHOR=Joseph Susan , Forsythe Stephen 

TITLE=Insights into the Emergent Bacterial Pathogen Cronobacter spp., Generated by Multilocus Sequence Typing and Analysis

JOURNAL=Frontiers in Microbiology

VOLUME=3

YEAR=2012

URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/microbiology/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2012.00397

DOI=10.3389/fmicb.2012.00397

ISSN=1664-302X

ABSTRACT=<p><italic>Cronobacter</italic> spp. (previously known as <italic>Enterobacter sakazakii</italic>) is a bacterial pathogen affecting all age groups, with particularly severe clinical complications in neonates and infants. One recognized route of infection being the consumption of contaminated infant formula. As a recently recognized bacterial pathogen of considerable importance and regulatory control, appropriate detection, and identification schemes are required. The application of multilocus sequence typing (MLST) and analysis (MLSA) of the seven alleles <italic>atpD</italic>, <italic>fusA</italic>, <italic>glnS</italic>, <italic>gltB</italic>, <italic>gyrB</italic>, <italic>infB</italic>, and <italic>ppsA</italic> (concatenated length 3036 base pairs) has led to considerable advances in our understanding of the genus. This approach is supported by both the reliability of DNA sequencing over subjective phenotyping and the establishment of a MLST database which has open access and is also curated; <uri xlink:href="http://www.pubMLST.org/cronobacter" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">http://www.pubMLST.org/cronobacter</uri>. MLST has been used to describe the diversity of the newly recognized genus, instrumental in the formal recognition of new <italic>Cronobacter</italic> species (<italic>C. universalis</italic> and <italic>C. condimenti</italic>) and revealed the high clonality of strains and the association of clonal complex 4 with neonatal meningitis cases. Clearly the MLST approach has considerable benefits over the use of non-DNA sequence based methods of analysis for newly emergent bacterial pathogens. The application of MLST and MLSA has dramatically enabled us to better understand this opportunistic bacterium which can cause irreparable damage to a newborn baby’s brain, and has contributed to improved control measures to protect neonatal health.</p>