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Updated: Nov 12, 2025

Heuristic Mining of Hierarchical Genotypes and Accessory Genome Loci in Bacterial Populations
Published on: December 7, 2021
Development of Phylodynamic Methods for Bacterial Pathogens
Danielle J Ingle1, Benjamin P Howden2, Sebastian Duchene3
1Microbiological Diagnostic Unit Public Health Laboratory, Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia; National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia; Department of Microbiology and Immunology, The Peter Doherty Institute for Infection and Immunity, The University of Melbourne, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
Abstract:
Phylodynamic methods have been essential to understand the interplay between the evolution and epidemiology of infectious diseases. To date, the field has centered on viruses. Bacterial pathogens are seldom analyzed under such phylodynamic frameworks, due to their complex genome evolution and, until recently, a paucity of whole-genome sequence data sets with rich associated metadata. We posit that the increasing availability of bacterial genomes and epidemiological data means that the field is now ripe to lay the foundations for applying phylodynamics to bacterial pathogens. The development of new methods that integrate more complex genomic and ecological data will help to inform public heath surveillance and control strategies for bacterial pathogens that represent serious threats to human health.
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