Mycoplasma pneumoniae Genome sequencing and assembly

Despite the availability of a significant set of M. pneumoniae genome sequences, it is currently difficult to determine the association between M. pneumoniae genotype and virulence. This is mainly due to the fact that all known M. pneumoniae sequences were exclusively obtained from strains isolated from patients with RTI symptoms. Clearly, this precludes determination of the putative genetic differences between strains causing symptomatic infections and strains carried by asymptomatic individuals. The recent isolation of a set of M. pneumoniae strains from both asymptomatic children and children suffering from RTI 3, however, allows a direct comparison of the genetic make-up of strains associated with bacterial carriage and those involved in symptomatic infection. We therefore set out to determine the genome sequence of 3 reference strains (M129, FH and R003), 3 strains from asymptomatic individuals, and 13 strains from clinically well-defined patients suffering from either an upper or lower RTI.