Identification of a dominant Chlamydia trachomatis strain in patients attending sexual transmitted infection clinic and female sex workers in Tunisia using a high resolution typing method
Institution:
1. Department of Microbiology and research laboratory “Microorganismes et Pathologies Humaines”, Habib Bourguiba University Hospital, Medical School of Sfax, Avenue Majida Boulila 3000, University of Sfax, Tunisia;2. Public Health Laboratory, Public Health Service of Amsterdam (GGD Amsterdam), Nieuwe Achtergracht 100, 1018 WT Amsterdam, The Netherlands;3. Biopesticides Team, Centre of Biotechnology of Sfax, Road of Sidi Mansour Km 6, 3018 Sfax, Tunisia;1. Université de Tunis El Manar, Faculté de Médecine de Tunis, LR99ES09 Laboratoire de Résistance aux antimicrobiens, 1007, Tunis, Tunisie;2. CHU Charles Nicolle, Service de Microbiologie, 1006, Tunis, Tunisie;3. Area Bioquímica y Biología Molecular, Universidad de La Rioja, Logrono, Spain;1. Division of Public Health Research, Gyeonggi Province Institute of Health and Environment, Suwon, South Korea;2. Division of Vaccine Research, Center for Infectious Diseases, National Institute of Health, Korea Centers for Disease Control & Prevention, Chungcheongbuk-do, South Korea;3. Department of Public Health Science, Graduate School, Korea University, Seoul, South Korea;4. Department of Laboratory Medicine, Korea University Guro Hospital, Seoul, South Korea
Abstract:
BackgroundThe distribution of Chlamydia trachomatis genotypes in Tunisia was previously studied using the reverse hybridization method. In this study, we used multilocus sequence typing (MLST) to describe Chlamydia trachomatis genetic diversity among heterosexual populations in Tunisia. The obtained sequence types (STs) were compared with those from a heterosexual population from Amsterdam, the Netherlands.MethodsClinical Tunisian patients and female sex workers provided 107 Chlamydia trachomatis positive samples that were used for MLST. Samples from 256 heterosexuals visiting the Amsterdam STI clinic were included as a reference group. Six highly variable genetic regions including the ompA gene were amplified and sequenced. The ST numbers were derived from a Chlamydia typing database (http://mlstdb.uu.se) and used to draw minimum spanning trees.ResultsompA sequencing detected 7 genotypes among the Tunisian populations of which genotype E was the most prevalent (66.3%). This genotype E resolved into 23 different STs and among these the ST3 was predominant (53.5%). MLST displayed 43 STs, of which 28 (65%) were new in the database. Minimum spanning tree analysis of all Tunisian samples identified 4 clusters of which one formed a clonal cluster with samples presenting the most prevalent ST3. When comparing samples from the Tunisian and Dutch populations in one minimum spanning tree, there was little overlap between the Chlamydia trachomatis samples.ConclusionThe CT-hrMLST scheme allowed us to identify that the Tunisian distribution was dominated by one genotype E (ST3) strain which is also highly prevalent in many other countries worldwide.
