Publications related to Are variable-number tandem repeats appropriate for genotyping Mycobacterium leprae?

The cost of adaptability: resource availability constrains functional stability under pulsed disturbances

Global change exposes ecosystems to changes in the frequency, magnitude, and concomitancy of disturbances, which impact the composition and functioning of these systems. Here, we experimentally evaluate the effects of salinity disturbances and eutrophicati ...

Amer Soc Microbiology2024

The microbial genomics of glacier-fed streams: adaptations to an extreme ecosystem

Massimo Bourquin

Glacier-fed streams are the cold, ultra-oligotrophic, and unstable streams that are fed by glacial meltwater. Despite these extreme conditions, they harbour a diverse and abundant microbial diversity that develops into biofilms, covering the boulders and s ...

EPFL2024

Host-Pathogen Interactions Through the Genomic Lens

Zhi Ming Xu

Hosts and pathogens are involved in a long-standing evolutionary arms race characterized by successive rounds of evolution. Specifically, while hosts evolve resistance against infections, pathogens adapt to re-establish virulence. Since the signatures of t ...

EPFL2023

Genomic insights into the coupling of a Chlorella-like microeukaryote and sulfur bacteria in the chemocline of permanently stratified Lake Cadagno

Christel Sybille Hassler

Meromictic Lake Cadagno is a permanently stratified system with a persistent microbial bloom within the oxic-anoxic boundary called the chemocline. The association between oxygenic and anoxygenic photosynthesis within the chemocline has been known for at l ...

SPRINGERNATURE2023

Sulfurospirillum diekertiae sp. nov., a tetrachloroethene-respiring bacterium isolated from contaminated soil

Christof Holliger, Julien Maillard, Junxiong Wang

Two anaerobic, tetrachloroethene- (PCE-) respiring bacterial isolates, designated strain ACSDCE T and strain ACSTCE, were characterized using a polyphasic approach. Cells were Gram-stain-negative, motile, non-spore-forming and shared a vibrioid- to spirill ...

2023

Inborn errors of type I interferon immunity in patients with symptomatic acute hepatitis E

Jacques Fellay

Background and Aims:The clinical spectrum of human infection by HEV ranges from asymptomatic to severe acute hepatitis. Furthermore, HEV can cause diverse neurological manifestations, especially Parsonage-Turner syndrome. Here, we used a large-scale human ...

Lippincott Williams & Wilkins2023

Back-to-Africa introductions of Mycobacterium tuberculosis as the main cause of tuberculosis in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Jacques Fellay, Zhi Ming Xu

In settings with high tuberculosis (TB) endemicity, distinct genotypes of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex (MTBC) often differ in prevalence. However, the factors leading to these differences remain poorly understood. Here we studied the MTBC populat ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2023

Development and validation of a multiplex real-time qPCR assay using GMP-grade reagents for leprosy diagnosis

Stewart Cole, Charlotte Avanzi, Thyago Leal Calvo

Author summaryLeprosy is a chronic dermato-neurological disease caused by Mycobacterium leprae, an obligate intracellular bacterium. Diagnosis of leprosy often relies on skin examinations for clinical signs, bacilli staining from skin smears and invasive s ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2022

Disentangle genus microdiversity within a complex microbial community by using a multi-distance long-read binning method: example of Candidatus Accumulibacter

Aline Sondra Adler, Christof Holliger, Julien Maillard, Marco Pagni, Simon Marius Jean Poirier

Complete genomes can be recovered from metagenomes by assembling and binning DNA sequences into metagenome assembled genomes (MAGs). Yet, the presence of microdiversity can hamper the assembly and binning processes, possibly yielding chimeric, highly fragm ...

WILEY2022

Using population-specific add-on polymorphisms to improve genotype imputation in underrepresented populations

Jacques Fellay, Sina Rüeger, Zhi Ming Xu

Genome-wide association studies rely on the statistical inference of untyped variants, called imputation, to increase the coverage of genotyping arrays. However, the results are often suboptimal in populations underrepresented in existing reference panels ...

Public Library Science2022

The interplay between human genetic variation, chronic inflammation and persistent infection: relevance for cardiovascular morbidity

Flavia Aurelia Shoko Hodel

Contemporary genomic approaches allow us to seek answers to biological questions that were previously out of reach. Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous genetic polymorphisms associated with human diseases, providing new insight ...

EPFL2022

A Baseline Cellular Antiviral State Is Maintained by cGAS and Its Most Frequent Naturally Occurring Variant rs610913

Shuting Xu, Jacques Fellay, Christian Axel Wandall Thorball

Upon recognition of aberrantly located DNA, the innate immune sensor cyclic GMP-AMP synthase (cGAS) activates stimulator of IFN genes (STING)/IFN regulatory factor (IRF)3-driven antiviral responses. In this study, we characterized the ability of a specific ...

American Association of Immunologists ; Oxford University Press2022

Single nucleotide polymorphism determines constitutive versus inducible type VI secretion in Vibrio cholerae

Melanie Blokesch, Sandrine Stutzmann, Milena Jadwiga Jaskolska, Natalia Carolina Drebes Dorr, Alexis Joseph Proutière, Loriane Bader

Vibrio cholerae is a well-studied human pathogen that is also a common inhabitant of marine habitats. In both environments, the bacterium is subject to interbacterial competition. A molecular nanomachine that is often involved in such competitive behavior ...

2022

Genomic Diversity of Torque Teno Virus in Blood Samples from Febrile Paediatric Outpatients in Tanzania: A Descriptive Cohort Study

Mary-Anne Hartley

Torque teno virus (TTV) is considered to be an ubiquitous member of the commensal human blood virome commonly reported in mixed genotype co-infections. This study investigates the genomic diversity of TTV in blood samples from 816 febrile Tanzanian childre ...

MDPI2022

The Quest for Genes Involved in Adaptation to Climate Change in Ruminant Livestock

Stéphane Joost, Elia Vajana

Simple Summary: After domestication in specific regions, livestock followed human migrations and colonized the whole world. During this population expansion, human and natural selection, together with demographic events, molded the livestock genome leading ...

2021

Mycobacterium leprae diversity and population dynamics in medieval Europe from novel ancient genomes

Stewart Cole, Philippe Busso, Charlotte Avanzi

Background Hansen's disease (leprosy), widespread in medieval Europe, is today mainly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions with around 200,000 new cases reported annually. Despite its long history and appearance in historical records, its origins ...

BMC2021

A new paradigm for leprosy diagnosis based on host gene expression

Stewart Cole, Philippe Busso, Andrej Benjak, Charlotte Avanzi, Thyago Leal Calvo

Author summary ...

PUBLIC LIBRARY SCIENCE2021

The influence of human genetic variation on Epstein–Barr virus sequence diversity

Jacques Fellay, Christian Hammer, Dylan Lawless, Olivier Noël Marie Naret, Sina Rüeger

Epstein–Barr virus (EBV) is one of the most common viruses latently infecting humans. Little is known about the impact of human genetic variation on the large inter-individual differences observed in response to EBV infection. To search for a potential imp ...

Nature Research2021

Early detection and surveillance of SARS-CoV-2 genomic variants in wastewater using COJAC

Tamar Kohn, Timothy R. Julian, Carola Bänziger, Xavier Fernandez Cassi, Federica Cariti, Alex Tunas Corzon

The continuing emergence of SARS-CoV-2 variants of concern and variants of interest emphasizes the need for early detection and epidemiological surveillance of novel variants. We used genomic sequencing of 122 wastewater samples from three locations in Swi ...

2022

Seascape genomics reveals candidate molecular targets of heat stress adaptation in three coral species

Stéphane Joost, Oliver Michele Selmoni, Véronique Berteaux-Lecellier

Anomalous heat waves are causing a major decline of hard corals around the world and threatening the persistence of coral reefs. There are, however, reefs that have been exposed to recurrent thermal stress over the years and whose corals appear to have bee ...

WILEY2021