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Photo of Tobias Ambjörnsson

Tobias Ambjörnsson

Senior lecturer

Photo of Tobias Ambjörnsson

Strain-Level Typing of Streptococcus pyogenes Using Optical DNA Mapping

Author

  • Radhika N. Kunnath
  • Zahra Abbaspour
  • Anna Johnning
  • Karolin Frykholm
  • Marie Wrande
  • Albertas Dvirnas
  • Sriram KK
  • Christian G. Giske
  • Tobias Ambjörnsson
  • Linus Sandegren
  • Erik Kristiansson
  • Fredrik Westerlund
Show all

Summary, in English

Streptococcus pyogenes, also known as group A Streptococcus (GAS), is a Gram-positive bacterial pathogen responsible for approximately 500,000 deaths globally per year. Therefore, surveillance of invasive GAS infections is of critical importance in understanding societal transmission. In this study, we propose an optical DNA mapping (ODM)-based assay for strain-level typing of S. pyogenes. Fluorescently labeled DNA molecules of lengths >150 kbp are stretched in nanochannels and imaged to reveal genomic information. A core genome alignment-based typing scheme is then utilized for identification at the strain level. Although our technique lacks the nucleotide-level resolution of whole-genome sequencing, it excels at detecting patterns across long stretches of DNA that remain inaccessible to short-read sequencing methods. Using clinical isolates, we demonstrate that the ODM assay can identify S. pyogenes at both the species level and at even higher taxonomic resolutions with high accuracy. Our typing scheme also shows a high correlation with standard emm subtyping for the analyzed samples. We conclude that ODM has the potential to deliver timely and cost-efficient strain-level bacterial identification.

Department/s

  • Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences (MGeo)

Publishing year

2025-11-14

Language

English

Pages

3085-3092

Publication/Series

ACS Infectious Diseases

Volume

11

Issue

11

Document type

Journal article

Publisher

The American Chemical Society (ACS)

Topic

  • Microbiology in the Medical Area
  • Infectious Medicine
  • Biochemistry

Keywords

  • bacterial typing
  • diagnostics
  • genomics
  • nanofluidics
  • optical DNA mapping
  • Streptococcus pyogenes

Status

Published

ISBN/ISSN/Other

  • ISSN: 2373-8227