Recent Papers

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Genome reorganization during emergence of host-associated Mycobacterium abscessus
Lindsey L Bohr, Madison A Youngblom, Vegard Eldholm, Caitlin S Pepperell
Microbial Genomics, 07 December 2021 Microbiology Society

Representing Tuberculosis Transmission with Complex Contagion: An Agent-Based Simulation Modeling Approach
Erin D Zwick, Caitlin S Pepperell, Oguzhan Alagoz
Medical Decision Making, 27 April 2021 SAGE Publications

Rapid adaptation of a complex trait during experimental evolution of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Tracy M Smith, Madison A Youngblom, John F Kernien, Mohamed A Mohamed, Lindsey L Bohr, Tatum D Mortimer, Mary B O’Neill, Caitlin S Pepperell
eLife, In Press

Transcriptional and translational responsiveness of the Neisseria gonorrhoeae type IV secretion system to conditions of host infections
Melanie M Callaghan, Amy K Klimowicz, Abigail C Shockey, John Kane, Caitlin Pepperell, Joseph P Dillard
Infect Immun., 16 Nov 2021 PubMed

Tuberculosis sanatorium treatment at the advent of the chemotherapy era
Erin D Zwick, Caitlin S Pepperell
BMC infectious diseases, 11 November 2020 BioMed Central

Lateral gene transfer shapes diversity of Gardnerella spp.
Lindsey L Bohr, Tatum D Mortimer, Caitlin S Pepperell
Frontiers in Cellular and Infection Microbiology, 23 June 2020 Frontiers

Genetic susceptibility to severe childhood asthma and rhinovirus-C maintained by balancing selection in humans for 150,000 years
MB O’Neill, G Laval, JC Teixeira, AC Palmenberg, CS Pepperell
Human Molecular Genetics, 16 December 2019 Oxford Academic

Lineage specific histories of Mycobacterium tuberculosis dispersal in Africa and Eurasia
Mary B O’Neill, Andrew Kitchen, Alex Zarley, William Aylward, Vegard Eldholm, Caitlin S Pepperell
Molecular Ecology 07 May 2019 PubMed

Investigation of genetic susceptibility to blastomycosis reveals interleukin-6 as a potential susceptibility locus
Richard M. Merkhofer, Jr., Mary B. O’Neill, Donny Xiong, Nydiaris Hernandez-Santos, Hannah Dobson, J. Scott Fites, Abigail C. Shockey, Marcel Wuethrich, Caitlin S. Pepperell, Bruce S. Klein
American Society for Microbiology 25 June 2019 ASM

Multiple exposures, reinfection and risk of progression to active tuberculosis
Sarah F Ackley, Robyn S Lee, Lee Worden, Erin Zwick, Travis C Porco, Marcel A Behr, Caitlin S Pepperell
R Soc Open Sci. 2019 Mar 20;6(3):180999. PubMed

Dispersal of Mycobacterium tuberculosis driven by historical European trade in the South Pacific
Claire Mulholland, Abigail Shockey, Htin Aung, Ray Cursons, Ronan O'Toole, Sanjay Gautam, Daniela Brites, Sebastien Gagneux, Sally Ann Roberts, Noel Karalus, Gregory Cook, Caitlin Pepperell, Vickery Laurence Arcus
Frontier in Microbiology, 04 December 2019 Frontiers

Effects of Host, Sample, and in vitro Culture on Genomic Diversity of Pathogenic Mycobacteria
Abigail C. Shockey, Jesse Dabney, and Caitlin S Pepperell
Front. Genet., 04 June 2019 Frontiers

China’s tuberculosis epidemic stems from historical expansion of four strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Qingyun Liu, Aijing Ma, Lanhai Wei, Yu Pang, Beibei Wu, Tao Luo, Yang Zhou, Hong-Xiang Zheng, Qi Jiang, Mingyu Gan, Tianyu Zuo, Mei Liu, Chongguang Yang, Li Jin, Iñaki Comas, Sebastien Gagneux, Yanlin Zhao, Caitlin S Pepperell, Qian Gao
Nat Ecol Evol. 2018 Dec;2(12):1982-1992. PubMed

Epidemiological and genomic determinants of tuberculosis outbreaks in First Nations communities in Canada
Alexander Doroshenko, Caitlin S Pepperell, Courtney Heffernan, Mary Lou Egedahl, Tatum D Mortimer, Tracy M Smith, Hailey E Bussan, Gregory J Tyrrell, Richard Long
BMC Med. 2018 Aug 8;16(1):128. PubMed

Global expansion of Mycobacterium tuberculosis lineage 4 shaped by colonial migration and local adaptation
Ola B. Brynildsrud, Caitlin S. Pepperell, et al.
Science Advances 17 Oct 2018: Vol. 4, no. 10 ScienceAdvances

Global Phylogeography of Mycobacterium Tuberculosis Reveals Role of Recent Human History in Pathogen Dispersal
Mary B O'Neill, Andrew Kitchen, Alex Zarley, William Aylward, Vegard Eldholm, Caitlin S Pepperell
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 01 April 2018

Signatures of selection at drug resistance loci in Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Tatum D Mortimer, Alexandra M Weber, Caitlin S Pepperell
mSystems. 2018 Jan 30;3(1). pii: e00108-17. PubMed

Adaptation in a fibronectin binding autolysin of Staphylococcus saprophyticus
Tatum D Mortimer, Douglas S Annis, Mary B O’Neill, Lindsey L Bohr, Tracy M Smith, Hendrik N Poinar, Deane F Mosher, Caitlin S Pepperell
mSphere. 2017 Nov 29;2(6). pii: e00511-17. PubMed

Evolutionary thrift: mycobacteria repurpose plasmid diversity during adaptation of type VII secretion systems
Tatum D Mortimer, Alexandra M Weber, Caitlin S Pepperell.
Genome Biol Evol. 2017 Mar 1;9(3):398-413. PubMed

Adaptation of Staphylococcus saprophyticus at the host-pathogen
Tatum D. Mortimer, Douglas S. Annis, Mary B. O’Neill, Lindsey L. Bohr, Tracy M. Smith, Hendrik N. Poinar, Deane F. Mosher, Caitlin S. Pepperell
mSphere doi: 10.1128/mSphere.00511-17 mSphere

A molecular portrait of maternal sepsis from Byzantine Troy
Alison M Devault, Tatum D Mortimer, Andrew Kitchen, Henrike Kiesewetter, Jacob M Enk, G Brian Golding, John Southon, Melanie Kuch, Ana T Duggan, William Aylward, Shea N Gardner, Jonathan E Allen, Andrew M King, Gerard Wright, Makoto Kuroda, Kengo Kato, Derek EG Briggs, Gino Fornaciari, Edward C Holmes, Hendrik N Poinar, Caitlin S Pepperell.
eLife. 2017; 6: e20983. PubMed

Armed conflict and population displacement as drivers of the evolution and dispersal of Mycobacterium tuberculosis
Vegard Eldholm, John H-O Pettersson, Ola B Brynildsrud, Andrew Kitchen, Erik Michael Rasmussen, Troels Lillebaek, Janne O Rønning, Valeriu Crudu, Anne Torunn Mengshoel, Nadia Debech, Kristian Alfsnes, Jon Bohlin, Caitlin S Pepperell, Francois Balloux.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2016 Nov 29;113(48):13881-13886. PubMed

Estimation of Gene Insertion/Deletion Rates with Missing Data
Utkarsh J Dang, Alison M Devault, Tatum D Mortimer, Caitlin S Pepperell, Hendrik N Poinar, G Brian Golding.
Genetics. 2016 Oct;204(2):513-529. PubMed

Diversity of Mycobacterium tuberculosis across evolutionary scale
O'Neill, Mary B., Tatum D. Mortimer, and Caitlin S. Pepperell.
PLoS Pathog. 2015 Nov;11(11):e1005257. PubMed

Modeling historical tuberculosis epidemics among Canadian First Nations: effects of malnutrition and genetic variation
Ackley, Sarah F., Fengchen Liu, Travis C. Porco, and Caitlin S. Pepperell.
PeerJ. 2015 Sep;3:e1237. PubMed

Genomic Signatures of Distributive Conjugal Transfer among Mycobacteria
Mortimer, Tatum D and Caitlin S Pepperell.
Genome Biology and Evolution, 2014;6(9):2489-2500. PubMed

The Role of Selection in Shaping Diversity of Natural M. tuberculosis Populations
Pepperell CS, Casto AM, Kitchen A, Granka JM, Cornejo OE, Holmes EC, Birren B, Galagan J, Feldman MW.
PLoS Pathog. 2013 Aug;9(8):e1003543. PubMed

Genetic research with Hmong-ancestry populations: Lessons from the literature and a pilot study
Xiong, Donny, Jennifer K. Meece, and Caitlin S. Pepperell.
Hmong Studies Journal, 2013;14:1-28. ProQuest

The timescale and evolutionary dynamics of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection in humans
Andrew Kitchen, Caitlin S Pepperell
American Journal of Physical Anthropology, 01 January 2012

Local epidemic history as a predictor of tuberculosis incidence in Saskatchewan Aboriginal communities
Caitlin Pepperell, Alicia H Chang, Wendy Wobeser, Julie Parsonnet, Vernon H Hoeppner
The International Journal of Tuberculosis and Lung Disease, 01 July 2011 ingenta

Dispersal of Mycobacterium tuberculosis via the Canadian fur trade
Pepperell CS, Granka JM, Alexander DC, Behr MA, Chui L, Gordon J, Guthrie JL, Jamieson FB, Langlois-Klassen D, Long R, Nguyen D, Wobeser W, Feldman MW.
Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2011 Apr 19;108(16):6526-31. PubMed

Bacterial genetic signatures of human social phenomena among M. tuberculosis from an Aboriginal Canadian population
Pepperell C, Hoeppner VH, Lipatov M, Wobeser W, Schoolnik GK, Feldman MW.
Mol Biol Evol. 2010 Feb;27(2):427-40. PubMed

Neurological manifestations of West Nile virus infection
Jodie M Burton, Ralph Z Kern, William Halliday, David Mikulis, James Brunton, Margaret Fearon, Caitlin Pepperell, Cheryl Jaigobin
Canadian Journal of Neurological Sciences, May 2004 Cambridge

West Nile virus infection in 2002: morbidity and mortality among patients admitted to hospital in southcentral Ontario
Caitlin Pepperell, Neil Rau, Sigmund Krajden, Ralph Kern, Atul Humar, Barbara Mederski, Andrew Simor, Donald E Low, Allison McGeer, Tony Mazzulli, Jodie Burton, Cheryl Jaigobin, Margaret Fearon, Harvey Artsob, Michael A Drebot, William Halliday, James Brunton
Cmaj, 27 May 2003 Cmaj

Low-virulence Citrobacter species encode resistance to multiple antimicrobials
C Pepperell, JV Kus, MA Gardam, A Humar, L Lowvirulence Burrows
Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy, 01 November 2002 ASM

Nonspecific esterase activity in astrocytes of the goldfish brain.
Caitlin Pepperell, Robert L Levine
Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry, 01 October 1996 Journal of Histochemistry & Cytochemistry

Popular Press

Wausau Daily Herald, "Hmong people genetically more vulnerable to blastomycosis, a rare fungal disease"

Science, "SciLine scores successes in first five months of operation"

NewScientist, "DNA reveals Romans helped spread TB across three continents"

Microbe Post, "Bacteria from the ancient city of Troy"

IFLScience, "Byzantine Skeleton Contains 800-Year-Old DNA From The Infection That Killed Her"

Smithsonian Magazine, "Remains from 800-year-old "Trojan Woman" record early maternal infection"

ABC News, "Ancient Bacteria Yield Clues for Woman's Dramatic Cause of Death 800 Years Ago"

Fox News Science, "Bones unearthed near ancient city of Troy yield clues of deadly infection"

International Business Times, "Mysterious nodules on 800-year-old skeleton from Troy contain intact DNA of deadly bacteria"

CBC News, "How pregnant woman, unborn son died in ancient city of Troy: McMaster scientists"

The Globe and Mail, "McMaster scientists unearth infection evidence in 13th-century Troy bones"

University of Wisconsin-Madison News, "Byzantine skeleton yields 800-year-old genomes from a fatal infection"

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, "UW researcher unlocks story of 800-year-old skeleton"

CTV News, " Bacterial DNA in 13th-century Troy bones provides snapshot of maternal infection"

The Atlantic, "Was Tuberculosis Born Out Of Fire?"

University of Wisconsin-Madison News, "Tuberculosis genomes portray secrets of pathogen’s success"

The Last Word on Nothing, "Whispers of forgotten history, traced in bacterial filigree"

ScienceNOW, "Tuberculosis Followed the Fur Trade"

CBC news, "Voyageurs' TB thrives among First Nations"

The Scientist, "Trading Pelts for Pestilence"

BioScience, "The Evolution of Tuberculosis"

Microbe Magazine (ASM), "Tracking Tuberculosis in Zebrafish and via the Fur Trade in Canada"

Stanford News, "Tuberculosis strain spread by the fur trade reveals stealthy approach of epidemics"