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Life Identification Numbers: A strain nomenclature approach to aid epidemiological surveillance of bacterial
Federica Palma1,2, Melanie Hennart1, Keith A Jolley3
1Institut Pasteur, Université Paris Cité, Biodiversity and Epidemiology of Bacterial Pathogens, Paris, France.
Abstract:
Unified strain taxonomies are needed for the epidemiological surveillance of bacterial pathogens and international communication in microbiological research. Core genome multilocus sequence typing (cgMLST) holds great promise for standardized high-resolution strain genotyping. However, this approach faces challenges including classification instability and disconnection of new nomenclature from widely adopted classical MLST identifiers. This Essay discusses the cgMLST-based Life Identification Number (LIN) method, recently proposed as a stable multilevel strain taxonomy system applicable to most bacterial pathogens, covering how LIN codes are implemented and used in practice for precise strain definitions and epidemiological tracking.
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