Epidemiological analysis of Legionnaires' disease in Scotland: a genomic study.

Background: Legionella pneumophila is the main cause of a severe pneumonic illness known as Legionnaires' disease and is a global public health threat. Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) can be applied to trace environmental origins of L pneumophila infections, providing information to guide appropriate interventions. We aim to explore the evolutionary and epidemiological relationships in a 36-year Scottish L pneumophila reference isolate collection.

A graph-based approach for the visualisation and analysis of bacterial pangenomes.

Background: The advent of low cost, high throughput DNA sequencing has led to the availability of thousands of complete genome sequences for a wide variety of bacterial species. Examining and interpreting genetic variation on this scale represents a significant challenge to existing methods of data analysis and visualisation.

Results: Starting with the output of standard pangenome analysis tools, we describe the generation and analysis of interactive, 3D network graphs to explore the structure of bacterial populations, the distribution of genes across a population, and the syntenic order in which those genes occur, in the new open-source network analysis platform, Graphia.

Population analysis of Legionella pneumophila reveals a basis for resistance to complement-mediated killing.

Legionella pneumophila is the most common cause of the severe respiratory infection known as Legionnaires' disease. However, the microorganism is typically a symbiont of free-living amoeba, and our understanding of the bacterial factors that determine human pathogenicity is limited. Here we carried out a population genomic study of 902 L.