AsianScientist (Jun. 22, 2011) – Scarlet fever has revealed an unusually high infection rate in Hong Kong this year.
As of today, 466 children have been infected and two cases have proven fatal. Scarlet fever is caused by Streptococcus pyogenes, a gram-positive pathogen that can be transmitted via skin wounds and airborne droplets.
Hong Kong University and BGI-Hong Kong are sequencing the S. pyogenes bacterial strain that caused the scarlet fever outbreak, and the draft genome sequence has been uploaded to NCBI AN:SRA038808 for immediate download at ftp://ftp.genomics.org.cn/pub/S.pyogenes/. They plan to release the whole genome fine map within a week.
Current analysis results indicate that this strain belongs to the M12 serotype, which is widely distributed in Europe, North America, South America, and Asia. No significant virulence markers have been observed for this strain of S. pyogenes. 95.2 percent of this strain’s genome can be aligned to two previously fully sequenced M12 strains, and 4.8 percent (around 90 kbp) is specific to this strain. It is possible that specific sequences in this strain may have resulted in its increased virulence.
Earlier this month, BGI-Shenzhen and the University Medical Center Hamburg-Eppendorf were the first to sequence the complete whole genome of the Germany Escherichia coli outbreak strain.
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Source: BGI China.
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