RT Journal Article SR Electronic T1 Monomorphic genotypes within a generalist lineage of Campylobacter jejuni show signs of global dispersion JF bioRxiv FD Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory SP 054932 DO 10.1101/054932 A1 Ann-Katrin Llarena A1 Ji Zhang A1 Vehkala Minna A1 Niko Välimäki A1 Marjaana Hakkinen A1 Marja-Liisa Hänninen A1 Mati Roasto A1 Mihkel Mäesaar A1 Eduardo Taboada A1 Dillon Barker A1 Giuliano Garfolo A1 Cesare Cammà A1 Elisabetta Di Giannatale A1 Jukka Corander A1 Mirko Rossi YR 2016 UL http://biorxiv.org/content/early/2016/05/24/054932.abstract AB The decreased costs of genome sequencing have increased capability to apply whole-genome sequence on epidemiological surveillance of zoonotic Campylobacter jejuni. However, knowledge about how genetically similar epidemiologically linked isolates can be is vital for correct application of this methodology. To address this issue in C. jejuni we investigated the spatial and temporal signals in the genomes of a major clonal complex and generalist lineage, ST-45 CC, by exploiting the population structure and genealogy and applying genome-wide association analysis of 340 isolates from across Europe collected over a wide time-range. The occurrence and strength of the geographical signal varied between sublineages and followed the clonal frame when present, while no evidence of a temporal signal was found. Certain sublineages of ST-45 CC formed discrete and genetically isolated clades to which geography and time had left only negligible traces in the genomes. We hypothesize that these ST-45 CC clades form globally expanded monomorphic clones possibly spread across Europe by migratory birds. In addition, we observed an incongruence between the genealogy of the strains and MLST typing, thereby challenging the existing clonal complex definition and use of a common MLST-based nomenclature for the ST-45 CC of C. jejuni.