Comparative genomics of Burkholderia pseudomallei strains isolated from distinct international regions

Burkholderia pseudomallei has been shown to persist in Taiwanese soils based on a continuous environmental survey conducted over 21 years. Increased isolation rates of environmental B. pseudomallei are commonly associated with melioidosis incidence in southern Taiwan. To investigate potential differences in virulence or genomic structure among isolates from different melioidosis-endemic regions, we performed comparative genomic analyses on Taiwanese strains isolated from cropland and Thai strains obtained from Thai-imported soil, with the kind assistance of Professor Direk Limmathurotsakul, Head of Microbiology at the Mahidol-Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU), Mahidol University, Thailand. The study also reports novel sequence types identified through this analysis.