Rapid, reference-free identification of bacterial pathogen transmission using optimized split k-mer analysis

Abstract

Infections caused by multidrug-resistant organisms (MDROs) are difficult to treat and often life threatening and place a burden on the healthcare system. Minimizing the transmission of MDROs in hospitals is a global priority with genomics proving to be a powerful tool for identifying the transmission of MDROs. To optimize the utility of genomics for prospective infection control surveillance, results must be available in real time, reproducible and simple to communicate to clinicians. Traditional reference-based approaches suffer from several limitations for prospective genomic surveillance. Whilst reference-free or pairwise genome comparisons avoid some of these limitations, they can be com..