Efficiency of different VNTR loci in MLVA25 analysis of Yersinia pestis strains of medieval biovar from the foci of Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Karapetyan LA, Sidorin AS, Kovrizhnikov AV, Naryshkina EA, Fedorov AV, Eroshenko GA, Kutyrev VV. Efficiency of different VNTR loci in MLVA25 analysis of Yersinia pestis strains of medieval biovar from the foci of Eastern Europe and Central Asia. Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Virology. 2024;42(4):18‑29. (In Russ.)
https://doi.org/10.17116/molgen20244204118

Подписка 2026 Молекулярная генетика, микробиология и вирусология (Molecular Genetics, Microbiology and Virology)

Использование инфографики авторами научных работ

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Abstract:

Multilocus analysis of variable number of tandem repeats, MLVA, is one of the high-resolution methods for typing genetically monomorphic pathogens of particularly dangerous infections. High efficiency in genotyping Yersinia pestis strains was achieved using MLVA25 method of typing by 25 VNTR loci, which is widely used in molecular-epidemiological studies. However, the issue of the effectiveness of different VNTR loci in MLVA25 analysis of Y. pestis strains of medieval biovar of the main subspecies, distributed in the majority of natural plague foci in Eastern Europe and Central Asia, remains open.

THE AIM

Of this work was to evaluate the efficiency of different VNTR loci and optimize the MLVA25 method for differentiation of Y. pestis strains of the medieval biovar from plague foci of Russia and other CIS countries located in Eastern Europe and Central Asia.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

This study analyzed the whole-genome sequences of 220 Y. pestis strains of medieval biovar of the main subspecies and 31 Y. pestis strains of other phylogenetic lineages. The sequences of VNTR loci of those strains were entered into the Bionumerics 7.6.3 program for subsequent phylogenetic analysis by the UPGMA method.

RESULTS

MLVA25 genotypes of 251 Y. pestis strains under study have been determined. According to the results of statistical analysis of the loci, 126 individual genotypes are detected in the strains of medieval biovar, which corresponds to the discriminatory power of the typing system (DP=0.98). The effective loci with high discriminatory power, which have the greatest influence on the differentiation of strains of medieval biovar by genotypes, have been identified.

CONCLUSION

The system of MLVA typing of Y. pestis strains of medieval biovar has been optimized. It includes 12 VNTR loci.

Keywords:

plague causative agent

strains

medieval biovar

typing

natural foci

Authors:

Karapetyan L.A.

Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute “Microbe”

ORCID: 0009-0007-5532-1521

Sidorin A.S.

Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute “Microbe”

ORCID: 0009-0005-3411-5572

Kovrizhnikov A.V.

Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute “Microbe”

ORCID: 0000-0002-7752-6321

Naryshkina E.A.

Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute “Microbe”

ORCID: 0000-0002-9190-099X

Fedorov A.V.

Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute “Microbe”

ORCID: 0000-0001-7190-4427

Eroshenko G.A.

Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute “Microbe”

ORCID: 0000-0001-5403-989X

Kutyrev V.V.

Russian Research Anti-Plague Institute “Microbe”

ORCID: 0000-0003-3788-3452

Received:

03.09.2024

Accepted:

08.10.2024

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References:

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