Investigation of Yersinia pestis and Yersinia pseudotuberculosis strains from Georgia and neighboring countries in the Caucasus by high-density SNP microarray.

Yersinia pestis, the causative agent of plague, is a recently evolved clone of the enteropathogenic bacterium Yersinia pseudotuberculosis. Y. pestis has been extensively studied for decades; however, there are insufficient data about the intra-species diversity of this microorganism in certain parts of the world, including the Caucasus region. Using a high-density single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) microarray, we genotyped a total of 46 Y. pestis isolates from two plague foci in Georgia and neighboring Caucasus countries together with 12 Y. pseudotuberculosis isolates from Georgia. The genotyping microarray captured a total of 13,525 SNP positions across the Y. pestis and Y. pseudotuberculosis genomes and plasmids with high-throughput capability and superior reproducibility. From this analysis, we confirmed the presence of two independent and relatively distant phylogenetic groups of Y. pestis in the Caucasus region. The signature SNP patterns identified from this study will allow assay development for plague surveillance and pseudotuberculosis diagnostics.