CjejuniTyper: integrated in silico typing of Campylobacter jejuni capsule and lipooligosaccharide loci with GBS-associated genomic profiling
- 1Croatian Institute of Public Health
- 2School of Medicine, University of Zagreb
Abstract
Campylobacter jejuni ( C. jejuni ) is the leading bacterial cause of gastroenteritis worldwide and the most common antecedent pathogen linked with Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS), an acute autoimmune neuropathy. The risk of GBS development is associated with the structure of the bacterial lipooligosaccharide (LOS), especially sialylated LOS classes that mimic human peripheral nerve gangliosides, as well as with the Penner heat-stable (HS) capsular polysaccharide (CPS) serotype. Accurate simultaneous determination of LOS class and CPS type is important for surveillance of GBS-associated C. jejuni lineages but currently requires culture-based serology or separate molecular assays. CjejuniTyper is an automated bioinformatic workflow that performs Penner CPS complex prediction, LOS class assignment, Cst-II allele calling, putative ganglioside-mimic prediction, virulence-factor detection, and antimicrobial-resistance profiling from genome assemblies. Penner prediction uses marker-gene searches, full-locus alignment, and subtype-resolution rules, whereas LOS classes are assigned using a BLAST-based scoring and confidence system. The workflow was evaluated using 617 assemblies with previously assigned LOS classes, 96 C. jejuni assemblies with Penner reference labels, and 113 retained genomes comprising 89 isolates previously reported from GBS patients and 24 enteritis controls. LOS typing correctly classified 595 of 617 assemblies, corresponding to 96.4% accuracy, Cohen’s kappa of 0.958 and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.958. Penner typing correctly classified 93 of 96 assemblies, corresponding to 96.9% accuracy, Cohen’s kappa of 0.961, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.962. Most incorrect classifications involved closely related or structurally overlapping loci in fragmented draft assemblies. Among 84 GBS-associated genomes with published LOS-class assignments, CjejuniTyper produced 83 concordant calls, corresponding to 98.8% concordance. In the Bangladesh case–control cohort, HIGH or MODERATE genomic profiles were identified in 34 of 38 GBS-associated isolates and 10 of 24 enteritis controls, corresponding to 89.5% sensitivity, 58.3% specificity, and 73.9% balanced accuracy. Across all 89 retained GBS-associated genomes, 81 (91.0%) received HIGH or MODERATE profiles. These profiles were enriched among GBS-associated isolates but were also present in some controls, indicating genomic mimicry-associated potential rather than patient-level clinical prediction. CjejuniTyper provides a reproducible workflow for integrated C. jejuni capsule and LOS typing with ganglioside-mimic, virulence, and antimicrobial-resistance annotations in a single output.
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BibTeX
@article{juric2026cjejunityper,
title = {{CjejuniTyper: integrated in silico typing of Campylobacter jejuni capsule and lipooligosaccharide loci with GBS-associated genomic profiling}},
author = {Dragan Jurić and Ivana Ferenčak and Ana Gverić Grginić and Ljiljana Žmak and Irena Tabain},
journal = {Frontiers in Microbiology},
year = {2026},
month = oct,
doi = {10.3389/fmicb.2026.1943123},
url = {https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1943123/full},
note = {CC BY 4.0},
}
RIS
TY - JOUR
TI - CjejuniTyper: integrated in silico typing of Campylobacter jejuni capsule and lipooligosaccharide loci with GBS-associated genomic profiling
AU - Dragan Jurić
AU - Ivana Ferenčak
AU - Ana Gverić Grginić
AU - Ljiljana Žmak
AU - Irena Tabain
PY - 2026
DA - 2026/10/19
JO - Frontiers in Microbiology
DO - 10.3389/fmicb.2026.1943123
UR - https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2026.1943123/full
AB - Campylobacter jejuni ( C. jejuni ) is the leading bacterial cause of gastroenteritis worldwide and the most common antecedent pathogen linked with Guillain–Barré syndrome (GBS), an acute autoimmune neuropathy. The risk of GBS development is associated with the structure of the bacterial lipooligosaccharide (LOS), especially sialylated LOS classes that mimic human peripheral nerve gangliosides, as well as with the Penner heat-stable (HS) capsular polysaccharide (CPS) serotype. Accurate simultaneous determination of LOS class and CPS type is important for surveillance of GBS-associated C. jejuni lineages but currently requires culture-based serology or separate molecular assays. CjejuniTyper is an automated bioinformatic workflow that performs Penner CPS complex prediction, LOS class assignment, Cst-II allele calling, putative ganglioside-mimic prediction, virulence-factor detection, and antimicrobial-resistance profiling from genome assemblies. Penner prediction uses marker-gene searches, full-locus alignment, and subtype-resolution rules, whereas LOS classes are assigned using a BLAST-based scoring and confidence system. The workflow was evaluated using 617 assemblies with previously assigned LOS classes, 96 C. jejuni assemblies with Penner reference labels, and 113 retained genomes comprising 89 isolates previously reported from GBS patients and 24 enteritis controls. LOS typing correctly classified 595 of 617 assemblies, corresponding to 96.4% accuracy, Cohen’s kappa of 0.958 and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.958. Penner typing correctly classified 93 of 96 assemblies, corresponding to 96.9% accuracy, Cohen’s kappa of 0.961, and a Matthews correlation coefficient of 0.962. Most incorrect classifications involved closely related or structurally overlapping loci in fragmented draft assemblies. Among 84 GBS-associated genomes with published LOS-class assignments, CjejuniTyper produced 83 concordant calls, corresponding to 98.8% concordance. In the Bangladesh case–control cohort, HIGH or MODERATE genomic profiles were identified in 34 of 38 GBS-associated isolates and 10 of 24 enteritis controls, corresponding to 89.5% sensitivity, 58.3% specificity, and 73.9% balanced accuracy. Across all 89 retained GBS-associated genomes, 81 (91.0%) received HIGH or MODERATE profiles. These profiles were enriched among GBS-associated isolates but were also present in some controls, indicating genomic mimicry-associated potential rather than patient-level clinical prediction. CjejuniTyper provides a reproducible workflow for integrated C. jejuni capsule and LOS typing with ganglioside-mimic, virulence, and antimicrobial-resistance annotations in a single output.
SN - 1664-302X
ER -