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. 2018 Jun 25;56(7):e00445-18.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.00445-18. Print 2018 Jul.

Molecular Characterization of Invasive Isolates of Neisseria meningitidis in Casablanca, Morocco

Aziza Razki  1   2 , Eva Hong  1 , Khalid Zerouali  3 , Houria Belabbes  3 , Khadija Aitmouss  2 , Aude Terrade  1 , Bahija Zaki  3 , Ala-Eddine Deghmane  1 , Naima Elmdaghri  2 , Muhamed-Kheir Taha  4
Affiliations

Molecular Characterization of Invasive Isolates of Neisseria meningitidis in Casablanca, Morocco

Aziza Razki et al. J Clin Microbiol. .

Abstract

Meningococcal epidemiology may change unpredictably, and typing of Neisseria meningitidis isolates is crucial for the surveillance of invasive meningococcal disease (IMD). Few data are available regarding the meningococcal epidemiology in countries of North Africa. We aimed to explore invasive meningococcal isolates from the Casablanca region in Morocco. We used whole-genome sequencing (WGS) to characterize 105 isolates from this region during the period of 2011 to 2016. Our data showed that the majority (n = 100) of the isolates belonged to serogroup B. Genotyping indicated that most of the isolates (n = 62) belonged to sequence type 33 of clonal complex 32. The isolates also showed the same PorA and FetA markers and clustered together on the basis of WGS phylogenetic analysis; they seemed to correspond to an expansion of local isolates in the Casablanca region, as reported for similar isolates in several other countries. These data suggest that serogroup B isolates may predominate in Morocco, which may have an important impact in the design of vaccination strategies.

Keywords: MLST; meningococcal disease; serogroup B disease; typing; whole-genome sequencing.

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Figures

FIG 1
FIG 1
Distribution of the isolates in the study according to their serogroups and year of isolation.
FIG 2
FIG 2
(A) Distribution of the isolates in the study according to their serogroups and CCs. (B) BURST analysis of the isolates of CC32 on the basis of seven loci from the MLST. The most frequent ST (ST33) is in the central circle (black). The middle circle (red) represents the single-locus variants from ST33, and the outer circle (blue) represents the double-locus variant from ST33.
FIG 3
FIG 3
(A) Neighbor-net phylogenetic network of all invasive cultured isolates received from the region of Casablanca, Morocco (in 2011 to 2016), and used in the study. The tree was drawn on the basis of cgMLST data. The 10 CCs and the corresponding serogroups of the isolates are indicated. (B) Neighbor-net phylogenetic network of all serogroup B isolates with the fine type P.19,15:F5-1 in the PubMLST database, including 58 isolates from Morocco and 69 other isolates collected between 1976 and 2017 in the United Kingdom, France, Brazil, Cuba, Italy, Slovenia, South Africa, Canada, Denmark, Greece, Ivory Coast, and Switzerland. The isolate from Morocco from 1994 (identification number 26047) is indicated by an arrow. (C) Neighbor-net phylogenetic network of the 2 serogroup W isolates from our collection (black circles) depicted within the tree for all invasive serogroup W isolates from France (in the period of 2010 to 2016). Cases were classified into three groups, i.e., original UK strain, UK-2013 strain, and Anglo-French-Hajj groups, using WGS data.
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