Claire ChewapreechaMatthew T.G. HoldenMinna VehkalaNiko VälimäkiZhirong YangSimon R. HarrisAlison E. MatherApichai TuanyokBirgit De SmetSimon Le HelloChantal BizetMark MayoVanaporn WuthiekanunDirek LimmathurotsakulRattanaphone PhetsouvanhBrian G. SprattJukka CoranderPaul KeimGordon DouganDavid A.B. DanceBart J. CurrieJulian ParkhillSharon J. PeacockUniversity of CambridgeWellcome Trust Sanger InstituteKing Mongkut s University of Technology ThonburiUniversity of St Andrews, School of MedicineHelsingin YliopistoUniversity of Helsinki Faculty of MedicineUniversity of FloridaPrins Leopold Instituut voor Tropische GeneeskundeGhent University, Laboratory of MicrobiologyInstitut Pasteur, ParisMenzies School of Health ResearchMahidol UniversityUniversity of OxfordLao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital-Wellcome Trust Research Unit (LOMWRU)Imperial College LondonUniversitetet i OsloNorthern Arizona UniversityLondon School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine2018-12-212019-03-142018-12-212019-03-142017-01-23Nature Microbiology. Vol.2, (2017)205852762-s2.0-85010282468https://repository.li.mahidol.ac.th/handle/123456789/42012© 2017 Macmillan Publishers Limited, part of Springer Nature. All rights reserved. The environmental bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei causes an estimated 165,000 cases of human melioidosis per year worldwide and is also classified as a biothreat agent. We used whole genome sequences of 469 B. pseudomallei isolates from 30 countries collected over 79 years to explore its geographic transmission. Our data point to Australia as an early reservoir, with transmission to Southeast Asia followed by onward transmission to South Asia and East Asia. Repeated reintroductions were observed within the Malay Peninsula and between countries bordered by the Mekong River. Our data support an African origin of the Central and South American isolates with introduction of B. pseudomallei into the Americas between 1650 and 1850, providing a temporal link with the slave trade. We also identified geographically distinct genes/variants in Australasian or Southeast Asian isolates alone, with virulence-associated genes being among those over-represented. This provides a potential explanation for clinical manifestations of melioidosis that are geographically restricted.Mahidol UniversityBiochemistry, Genetics and Molecular BiologyImmunology and MicrobiologyArticleSCOPUS10.1038/nmicrobiol.2016.263