1199. Phylogenomic analysis of Campylobacter jejuni isolated from gastroenteritis cases in Michigan

BACKGROUND: C. jejuni is the leading cause of bacterial gastroenteritis worldwide. It has been classified as a serious antibiotic resistant threat, causing 13,000 hospitalizations and 120 deaths annually. Our goal was to describe the diversity of clinical C. jejuni using phylogenomics and classify resistance mechanisms. METHODS: Isolates were collected via sentinel surveillance at four hospitals, and demographic and clinical data were obtained. DNA was extracted and sequenced. Raw reads were processed with Trimmomatic and quality checked with FastQC. De novo genome assembly was performed in Spades. Assembled genomes were filtered for quality and completeness; samples of 1.4-2.1MB were annotated in Prokka followed by pangenome and phylogenetic analyses. Multilocus sequence typing loci and virulence and antibiotic resistance genes were extracted from each genome. RESULTS: Among the 214 C. jejuni isolates recovered, 86 unique sequence types (STs) were identified; five were novel STs with unique allele combinations. ST353 (8.3%: n=18), ST982 (7.4%: n=16), ST50 (5.1 %: n=11) and ST48 (5.1%: n=11) were the most prevalent STs identified, while the majority (50.1%: n=50) of STs were singletons. The pangenome analysis identified 8781, 615, and 1169 total, core, and shell core genes, respectively, which grouped the isolates into three major clades. Most isolates belonged to clade 1. A neighbor-net analysis detected significant recombination among all 86 STs (pairwise homoplasy index p=< 0.00001) and evidence of horizontal gene transfer across clades. The beta-lactamase gene, bla(OXA-605), was the most common resistance gene identified (58.8%: n=125) followed by tet(O) (56.0%: n=121), which mediate resistance to beta-lactams and tetracyclines, respectively. Resistance phenotypes were confirmed using microbroth dilution. Conclusion: Together, these data demonstrate that the C. jejuni population is highly diverse and carries important resistance determinants. The phylogenomic analyses also provide insight into the evolution of this major foodborne pathogen. Future work will focus on identifying molecular and epidemiological factors associated with specific strain types and resistance and virulence profiles circulating in Michigan. DISCLOSURES: All Authors: No reported disclosures