{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,3,31]],"date-time":"2026-03-31T21:58:51Z","timestamp":1774994331259,"version":"3.50.1"},"reference-count":41,"publisher":"Public Library of Science (PLoS)","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]],"date-time":"2022-12-28T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1672185600000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/501100004561","name":"Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Kazakhstan","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["AP09562908"],"award-info":[{"award-number":["AP09562908"]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/501100004561","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["www.plosone.org"],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["PLoS ONE"],"abstract":"<jats:p><jats:italic>Neisseria meningitidis<\/jats:italic> (meningococcus) is a cosmopolitan bacterium that is often found in the upper respiratory tract of asymptomatic humans. However, <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>. <jats:italic>meningitidis<\/jats:italic> also causes meningeal inflammation and\/or sepsis in humans with a periodic resurgence in incidence and high mortality rates. The pathogen is highly diverse genetically and antigenically, so that genotyping is considered important for vaccine matching to circulating strains. Annual incidence of meningococcal disease in Kazakhstan ranges between 0.2 and 2.5 cases per 100 thousand population. In total, 78 strains of <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>. <jats:italic>meningitidis<\/jats:italic> were isolated from clinical patients and contact persons during the years 2017\u20132018 in Kazakhstan. Of these, 41 strains including four from the patients and 37 from contacts, were sequenced using Illumina MiSeq. <jats:italic>In silico<\/jats:italic> typing was completed using the Neisseria pipeline 1.2 on the Galaxy Workflow Management System and PubMLST. Whole genome SNP (single nucleotide polymorphisms) trees were built using BioNumerics 8. Seven-gene multilocus sequence typing (MLST) identified ten sequence types (ST), two of which have not been previously described (ST-16025; ST-16027). ST-16025 was detected in two patients with invasive meningococcal disease in 2017 and 2018 in Akmola region and 16 contacts in 2017 in Turkistan region. This prevalent type ST-16025 demonstrates considerable intertypic diversity as it consists of three subcomplexes with a distance of more than 2000 SNPs. Invasive and carrier strains belong to different serogroups (MenB and MenC), PorA and FetA_VR. Two invasive strains were MenB, one MenC and one MenW (Hajj lineage). The strains from the contact persons were: MenC (n = 18), cnl (n = 9), MenY (n = 7), MenW (n = 1), MenB (n = 1) and one unidentifiable. Different numbers of alleles were present: 12, 11, 7, and 7 alleles for PorA, FetA, fHbp, and NHBA, respectively. This study is the first report of the genetic diversity of <jats:italic>N<\/jats:italic>. <jats:italic>meningitidis<\/jats:italic> strains in Kazakhstan. Despite limitations with the studied sample size, important conclusions can be drawn based on data produced. This study provides evidence for regulatory authorities with regard to changing routine diagnostic protocols to increase the collecting of samples for WGS.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1371\/journal.pone.0279536","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]],"date-time":"2022-12-28T18:27:12Z","timestamp":1672252032000},"page":"e0279536","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1371\/journal.pone.corrections_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":3,"title":["Whole genome sequence analysis of Neisseria meningitidis strains circulating in Kazakhstan, 2017\u20132018"],"prefix":"10.1371","volume":"17","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-0307-1053","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Alexandr","family":"Shevtsov","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Zabida","family":"Aushakhmetova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Asylulan","family":"Amirgazin","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Olga","family":"Khegay","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dinara","family":"Kamalova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Bibiaisha","family":"Sanakulova","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Askar","family":"Abdaliyev","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Dinagul","family":"Bayesheva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Aliya","family":"Seidullayeva","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Yerlan","family":"Ramankulov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"given":"Alexandr","family":"Shustov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0913-194X","authenticated-orcid":true,"given":"Gilles","family":"Vergnaud","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"role":"author","vocabulary":"crossref"}]}],"member":"340","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2022,12,28]]},"reference":[{"issue":"9","key":"pone.0279536.ref001","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"821","DOI":"10.1099\/jmm.0.45529-0","article-title":"Neisseria meningitidis: an overview of the carriage state","volume":"53","author":"SP Yazdankhah","year":"2004","journal-title":"Journal of medical microbiology"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0279536.ref002","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"84","DOI":"10.1038\/s41579-019-0282-6","article-title":"Neisseria meningitidis: using genomics to understand diversity, evolution and pathogenesis","volume":"18","author":"DA Caugant","year":"2020","journal-title":"Nature Reviews Microbiology"},{"issue":"1","key":"pone.0279536.ref003","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"21","DOI":"10.1017\/S0950268800029198","article-title":"Carriage of Neisseria meningitidis: investigations in a military establishment","volume":"101","author":"J Pether","year":"1988","journal-title":"Epidemiology & Infection"},{"issue":"7238","key":"pone.0279536.ref004","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"846","DOI":"10.1136\/bmj.320.7238.846","article-title":"Changing carriage rate of Neisseria meningitidis among university students during the first week of term: cross sectional study","volume":"320","author":"KR Neal","year":"2000","journal-title":"Bmj"},{"issue":"2","key":"pone.0279536.ref005","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"105","DOI":"10.3109\/inf.1981.13.issue-2.05","article-title":"Epidemiology of Neisseria meningitidis: prevalence and symptoms from the upper respiratory tract in family members to patients with meningococcal disease.","volume":"13","author":"P Olc\u00e9n","year":"1981","journal-title":"Scandinavian journal of infectious diseases"},{"issue":"18","key":"pone.0279536.ref006","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","first-page":"1378","DOI":"10.1056\/NEJM200105033441807","volume":"344","author":"NE Rosenstein","year":"2001","journal-title":"Meningococcal disease. 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