Genomics and metagenomics of Madurella mycetomatis, a causative agent of black grain mycetoma in Sudan.

• Published in: PLOS Neglected Tropical Diseases
• Main Authors: Anastasia P Litvintseva, Sahar Bakhiet, Lalitha Gade, Darlene D Wagner, Ujwal R Bagal, Dhwani Batra, Emily Norris, Lavanya Rishishwar, Karlyn D Beer, Emmanuel Edwar Siddig, Najwa Adam Mhmoud, Nancy A Chow, Ahmed Fahal
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022
• Subjects: Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine; RC955-962; Public aspects of medicine; RA1-1270; Arctic
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pntd.0010787; https://doaj.org/article/b5ba4c8fced94547831c827992b73506

Madurella mycetomatis is one of the main causative agents of mycetoma, a debilitating neglected tropical disease. Improved understanding of the genomic diversity of the fungal and bacterial causes of mycetoma is essential to advances in diagnosis and treatment. Here, we describe a high-quality genome assembly of M. mycetomatis and results of the whole genome sequence analysis of 26 isolates from Sudan. We demonstrate evidence of at least seven genetically diverse lineages and extreme clonality among isolates within these lineages. We also performed shotgun metagenomic analysis of DNA extracted from mycetoma grains and showed that M. mycetomatis reads were detected in all sequenced samples with the average of 11,317 reads (s.d. +/- 21,269) per sample. In addition, 10 (12%) of the 81 tested grain samples contained bacterial reads including Streptococcus sp., Staphylococcus sp. and others.