Genetic Diversity of Clinical ST2 Strains in comparison with Vaccine Reference Strains of India.

Pertussis is a highly contagious disease of the respiratory tract caused by , a bacterium that lives in the mouth, nose, and throat. Current study reports the highly accurate complete genomes of two clinical strains from India for the first time. Complete genome sequencing was performed for two strains using Ion Torrent PGM and Oxford nanopore sequencing method. Data was assembled and the sequence annotation was performed through PATRIC and NCBI server. Downstream analyses of the isolates were performed using CGE server databases for antimicrobial resistance genes, plasmids, and sequence types. The phylogenetic analysis was performed using Roary. The analysis revealed insertional elements flanked by IS, which has been previously regarded as the important component for bacterial evolution. The two clinical strains exhibited diversity through genome degradation when compared to whole-cell vaccine reference strains of India. These isolates harboured multiple genetic virulence traits and toxin subunits, which belonged to sequence type ST2. The genome information of Indian clinical strains will serve as a baseline data to decipher more information on the genome evolution, virulence factors and their role in pathogenesis for effective vaccine strategies.