Comparative genomics of French STEC O26:H11

Over the last decades, STEC O26:H11 has become the first leading cause of pediatric HUS in France with stx2-carrying strains at the forefront of this phenomenon. In the mean time, the French National Reference Laboratory for E. coli observed a sharp increase in the proportion of stx2-carrying O26:H11 STEC isolated in food matrices, especially in raw milk products (RMP). Hence, this study describes a genomic comparative analysis of clinical and RMP-derived stx2-carrying O26:H11 STEC isolates and investigates the population structure and evolutionary dynamics of such strains in France between 2014 and 2024.