{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T06:15:39Z","timestamp":1788156939707,"version":"build-2803163510"},"reference-count":33,"publisher":"Frontiers Media SA","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1788134400000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":["frontiersin.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Front. Public Health"],"abstract":"<jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Introduction<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Leptospirosis is a complex zoonotic disease requiring high-resolution surveillance. A systems-thinking framework was used to connect genomic and ecological data and map the geographic and host-based structuring of co-circulating pathogenic\n                      <jats:italic>Leptospira<\/jats:italic>\n                      lineages in Puerto Rico.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Methods<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      Forty-four core genomes of\n                      <jats:italic>L. interrogans<\/jats:italic>\n                      ,\n                      <jats:italic>L. borgpetersenii<\/jats:italic>\n                      , and\n                      <jats:italic>L. kirschneri<\/jats:italic>\n                      from human, domestic, and wildlife hosts were analyzed. Spatiotemporal and landscape metadata were integrated using root-to-tip regression, isolation-by-distance profiling and calibrated single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) thresholds (\u22641, \u22645, and \u226410 SNPs) to define transmission clusters.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Results<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>\n                      <jats:italic>Leptospira<\/jats:italic>\n                      species exhibited distinct ecological pathways partitioned by geography, explaining 56% of genomic variance for\n                      <jats:italic>L. interrogans<\/jats:italic>\n                      and 91% for\n                      <jats:italic>L. borgpetersenii<\/jats:italic>\n                      (PERMANOVA).\n                      <jats:italic>L. interrogans<\/jats:italic>\n                      displayed high landscape connectivity across multiple hosts, forming localized networks (\u22641 to \u226410 SNPs) that capture active spillovers (human-to-rat linkages at \u22641 SNP) and resolved into rodent host-specific lineages (\n                      <jats:italic>\n                        R\n                        <jats:sup>2<\/jats:sup>\n                      <\/jats:italic>\n                      =\u202f0.34). Conversely,\n                      <jats:italic>L. borgpetersenii<\/jats:italic>\n                      showed spatial and temporal genomic homogeneity and a lack of host-associated structure within an unpartitioned transmission pool dominated by\n                      <jats:italic>Mus musculus<\/jats:italic>\n                      . As a result, fixed genomic thresholds yielded disparate outcomes:\n                      <jats:italic>L. interrogans<\/jats:italic>\n                      resolved into 4 to 5 discrete, expanding clusters, whereas\n                      <jats:italic>L. borgpetersenii<\/jats:italic>\n                      grouped into a single uniform population at the \u226410-SNP threshold.\n                    <\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>\n                  <jats:sec>\n                    <jats:title>Conclusion<\/jats:title>\n                    <jats:p>Co-circulating pathogenic leptospires occupy distinct ecological niches shaped by varying host restriction and environmental persistence. Fixed genomic thresholds lack universal applicability; effective genomic epidemiological surveillance must employ species-specific threshold calibration to accurately map transmission pathways.<\/jats:p>\n                  <\/jats:sec>","DOI":"10.3389\/fpubh.2026.1838089","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2026,8,31]],"date-time":"2026-08-31T05:40:15Z","timestamp":1788154815000},"update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3389\/crossmark-policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":0,"title":["Genomic and ecological systems-thinking framework for pathogenic Leptospira in Puerto Rico"],"prefix":"10.3389","volume":"14","author":[{"given":"Ammar","family":"Yasir","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Division of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Minnesota","place":["Minneapolis, MN, United States"]}],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"given":"Gillian A. 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