GENOMIC DATA SETS DESCRIBING GENETIC BACKGROUND AND CIRCULATING LINEAGES OF NEISSERIA GONORRHOEAE IN BANGALORE, INDIA

Abstract

Intro: Emergence of multi-drug resistance in Neisseria gonorrhoeae is a big public health challenge in controlling sexually transmitted diseases (STDs). Whole-genome sequencing (WGS) has been widely used by increasing countries in North America, Europe, and Pacific to determine the decreased susceptible or resistance determinants of Neisseria gonorrhoeae, track the spread of these determinants throughout the gonococcal population at national or regional level. However, no studies to date have examined the genomic epidemiology of gonorrhea in India, where the burden of antimicrobial resistant strains of Neisseria gonorrhoeae is high. Methods: Eight clinical isolates of Neisseria gonorrhoeae collected from 2017 – 2020 in Bangalore region of India were sequenced on Illumina platform. MLST type, virulence genes and AMR genotypes were determined. Findings: The prevalent MLST STs were ST1579(n = 3), ST7363(n = 3), ST1599(n = 1), ST13266(n = 1). All isolates were resistant to penicillin, Sulfonamides, and Tetracyclines. 87.5% of isolates were resistant to ciprofloxacin, 50% to Cefixime and 25% to azithromycin. It was found that all strains were susceptible to spectinomycin and ceftriaxone. ST7363 isolates contained showed resistance to Azithromycin, Ciprofloxacin, Penicillin and Tetracycline. The variant GyrA_S91F was associated with all CIPR. Other GyrA or ParC variants were GyrA95, or ParC86,87,88. penA mosaic alleles detected were ins346D,G545S,V316T,A501T. R228S mutation in folP was detected among sulfonamide resistant isolates. Cefixime resistance was driven by penA mosaic alleles-G545S,V316T,I312M and G45D_mtr mutation, while Azithromycin resistance was mainly driven by c2597t mutation in 23S_rDNA. Mutations in porB gene(A121N) and ponA(L421P) were observed in ST1579 lineage which showed resistance to Cefixime Conclusion: India harbours different predominant clones associated with decreased susceptibility to antibiotics from those clones circulated in other regions. The findings underscore the importance of maintaining continued surveillance on antibiotic resistance to gonorrhoea and a potential need for a strategic guideline. The data can be used as baseline data and also contributes to our understanding on spread of N. gonorrhoeae and its resistant strains at regional and global levels