ONT and Illumina for Francisella, Bacillus and Brucella. Comparison of Illumina and Oxford Nanopore Technology for Genome Analysis of Francisella tularensis, Bacillus anthracis, and Brucella suis

Bacterial epidemiology needs to understand the spread and dissemination of strains in a One Health context. This is especially important for highly pathogenic bacteria such as Bacillus anthracis, Brucella species, and Francisella tularensis. Whole-genome-sequencing (WGS) hast been developed to detect genetic markers and to perform high-resolution genotyping. While WGS based on Illumina sequencing is established, this study tested sequencing with Oxford Nanopore Technology (ONT) for those highly pathogenic bacteria with stable genomes.