Professor Ed Feil
Profile
Research Interests
My interests lie in understanding the processes underpinning the evolution of bacterial pathogens over very short time scales. Much of my research career has been spent generating and interpreting multlocus sequence typing (MLST) data for numerous species. I developed the BURST algorithm to help visualise these datasets and this procedure was implemented by Brian Spratt’s group at Imperial College as eBURST.
More recently, I have also been working with the Pathogen Genomics Group at the Sanger Institute on the use of next-generation sequencing data to understand the micro-evolution and transmission of MRSA. This work was published in Science in 2010 (Vol.327 no. 5964 pp. 469-474). I am a PI in the CRCUK project, headed by Prof Sharon Peacock , looking at implementing this technology into routine epidemiological surveillance, in the FP7 Project TROCAR and in a consortium project funded by the insect pollinator initiativelooking at the epidemiology of European Foul Brood in honeybees.
Other interests include short-term purifying selection, mutation biases and the evolution of base composition. Key collaborators in these areas are Eduardo Rocha , Laurence Hurst and Dawn Field.
Publications
Vanbergen, A. J., Baude, M., Biesmeijer, J. C., Britton, N. F., Brown, M. J. F., Bryden, J., Budge, G. E., Bull, J. C., Carvell, C., Challinor, A. J., Connolly, C. N., Evans, D. J., Feil, E. J., Garratt, M. P., Greco, M. K., Heard, M. S., Jansen, V. A. A., Keeling, M. J., Kunin, W. E., Marris, G. C., Memmott, J., Murray, J. T., Nicolson, S. W., Osborne, J. L., Paxton, R. J., Pirk, C. W. W., Polce, C., Potts, S. G., Priest, N. K., Raine, N. E., Roberts, S., Ryabov, E. V., Shafir, S., Shirley, M. D. F., Simpson, S. J., Stevenson, P. C., Stone, G. N., Termansen, M. and Wright, G. A., 2013. Threats to an ecosystem service : pressures on pollinators. Frontiers in Ecology and the Environment, 11 (5), pp. 251-259.
Shepheard, M.A., Fleming, V.M., Connor, T.R., Corander, J., Feil, E.J., Fraser, C. and Hanage, W.P., 2013. Historical zoonoses and other changes in host tropism of Staphylococcus aureus, identified by phylogenetic analysis of a population dataset. PLoS ONE, 8 (5), 62369.
Mechai, S., Feil, E. J., Gariepy, T. D., Gregory, T. R., Lindsay, L. R., Millien, V. and Ogden, N. H., 2013. Investigation of the population structure of the tick vector of lyme disease Ixodes scapularis (Acari:Ixodidae) in Canada using mitochondrial cytochrome C oxidase subunit I gene sequences. Journal of Medical Entomology, 50 (3), pp. 560-570.
Theethakaew, C., Feil, E. J., Castillo-Ramírez, S., Aanensen, D. M., Suthienkul, O., Neil, D. M. and Davies, R. L., 2013. Genetic relationships of Vibrio parahaemolyticus isolates from clinical, human carrier, and environmental sources in Thailand, determined by multilocus sequence analysis. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 79 (7), pp. 2358-2370.
Vollmer, S.A., Feil, E.J., Raper, S.L., Kurtenbach, K., Chu, C.-Y., Cao, W.-C. and Margos, G., 2013. Spatial spread and demographic expansion of Lyme borreliosis spirochaetes in Eurasia. Infection, Genetics and Evolution, 14, pp. 147-155.
Wellington, E.M.H., Boxall, A.B.A., Cross, P., Feil, E.J., Gaze, W.H., Hawkey, P.M., Johnson-Rollings, A.S., Jones, D.L., Lee, N.M., Otten, W., Thomas, C.M. and Williams, A.P., 2013. The role of the natural environment in the emergence of antibiotic resistance in Gram-negative bacteria. The Lancet Infectious Diseases, 13 (2), pp. 155-165.
Boonsilp, S., Thaipadungpanit, J., Amornchai, P., Wuthiekanun, V., Bailey, M.S., Holden, M.T.G., Zhang, C., Jiang, X., Koizumi, N., Taylor, K., Galloway, R., Hoffmaster, A.R., Craig, S., Smythe, L.D., Hartskeerl, R.A., Day, N.P., Chantratita, N., Feil, E.J., Aanensen, D.M., Spratt, B.G. and Peacock, S.J., 2013. A Single Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) Scheme for Seven Pathogenic Leptospira Species. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 7 (1), 1954.
Greco, M. K., Lang, J., Gallmann, P., Priest, N., Feil, E. and Crailsheim, K., 2013. Sugar concentration influences decision making in Apis mellifera L. workers during early-stage honey storage behaviour. Open Journal of Animal Sciences, 3 (3), pp. 210-218.
Priest, N. K., Rudkin, J. K., Feil, E. J., Van Den Elsen, J. M. H., Cheung, A., Peacock, S. J., Laabei, M., Lucks, D. A., Recker, M. and Massey, R. C., 2012. From genotype to phenotype: can systems biology be used to predict Staphylococcus aureus virulence? Nature Reviews Microbiology, 10 (11), pp. 791-797.
Feil, E. J., 2012. The emergence and spread of dysentery. Nature Genetics, 44 (9), pp. 964-965.
Mcadam, P. R., Templeton, K. E., Edwards, G. F., Holden, M. T. G., Feil, E. J., Aanensen, D. M., Bargawi, H. J. A., Spratt, B. G., Bentley, S. D., Parkhill, J., Enright, M. C., Holmes, A., Girvan, E. K., Godfrey, P. A., Feldgarden, M., Kearns, A. M., Rambaut, A., Robinson, D. A. and Fitzgerald, J. R., 2012. Molecular tracing of the emergence, adaptation, and transmission of hospital-associated methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 109 (23), pp. 9107-9112.
Ros, V. I. D., Fleming, V. M., Feil, E. J. and Breeuwer, J. A. J., 2012. Diversity and recombination in Wolbachia and Cardinium from Bryobia spider mites. BMC Microbiology, 12 (Supplement 1), S13.
Castillo-ramirez, S., Corander, J., Marttinen, P., Aldeljawi, M., Hanage, W. P., Westh, H., Boye, K., Gulay, Z., Bentley, S. D., Parkhill, J., Holden, M. T. and Feil, E. J., 2012. Phylogeographic variation in recombination rates within a global clone of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus. Genome Biology, 13 (12), R126.
Lobova, T. I., Feil, E. J. and Popova, L. Y., 2011. Multiple antibiotic resistance of heterotrophic bacteria isolated from Siberian lakes subjected to differing degrees of anthropogenic impact. Microbial Drug Resistance, 17 (4), pp. 583-591.
Charneski, C. A., Honti, F., Bryant, J. M., Hurst, L. D. and Feil, E. J., 2011. Atypical AT skew in firmicute genomes results from selection and not from mutation. Plos Genetics, 7 (9), e1002283.
Willems, R. J. L., Hanage, W. P., Bessen, D. E. and Feil, E. J., 2011. Population biology of Gram-positive pathogens: high-risk clones for dissemination of antibiotic resistance. FEMS Microbiology Reviews, 35 (5), pp. 872-900.
Castillo-Ramirez, S., Harris, S. R., Holden, M. T. G., He, M., Parkhill, J., Bentley, S. D. and Feil, E. J., 2011. The Impact of recombination on dN/dS within recently emerged bacterial clones. PLoS Pathogens, 7 (7), e1002129.
Ogden, N. H., Margos, G., Aanensen, D. M., Drebot, M. A., Feil, E. J., Hanincova, K., Schwartz, I., Tyler, S. and Lindsay, L. R., 2011. Investigation of Genotypes of Borrelia burgdorferi in Ixodes scapularis Ticks Collected during Surveillance in Canada. Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 77 (10), pp. 3244-3254.
Vollmer, S. A., Bormane, A., Dinnis, R. E., Seelig, F., Dobson, A. D. M., Aanensen, D. M., James, M. C., Donaghy, M., Randolph, S. E., Feil, E. J., Kurtenbach, K. and Margos, G., 2011. Host migration impacts on the phylogeography of Lyme Borreliosis spirochaete species in Europe. Environmental Microbiology, 13 (1), pp. 184-192.
Holt, D. C., Holden, M. T. G., Tong, S. Y. C., Castillo-Ramirez, S., Clarke, L., Quail, M. A., Currie, B. J., Parkhill, J., Bentley, S. D., Feil, E. J. and Giffard, P. M., 2011. A Very Early-Branching Staphylococcus aureus Lineage Lacking the Carotenoid Pigment Staphyloxanthin. Genome Biology and Evolution, 3, pp. 881-895.
Ahmed, A., Thaipadungpanit, J., Boonsilp, S., Wuthiekanun, V., Nalam, K., Spratt, B. G., Aanensen, D. M., Smythe, L. D., Ahmed, N., Feil, E. J., Hartskeerl, R. A. and Peacock, S. J., 2011. Comparison of two multilocus sequence based genotyping schemes for Leptospira species. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 5 (11), e1374.
Rocha, E. P. C. and Feil, E. J., 2010. Mutational patterns cannot explain genome composition: Are there any neutral sites in the genomes of bacteria? Plos Genetics, 6 (9), e1001104.
Sonthayanon, P., Peacock, S. J., Chierakul, W., Wuthiekanun, V., Blacksell, S. D., Holden, M. T. G., Bentley, S. D., Feil, E. J. and Day, N. P. J., 2010. High rates of homologous recombination in the mite endosymbiont and opportunistic human pathogen orientia tsutsugamushi. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 4 (7), e752.
Elbir, H., Feil, E. J., Drancourt, M., Roux, V., El Sanousi, S. M., Eshag, M., Colque-Navarro, P., Kühn, I. and Flock, J. I., 2010. Ovine clone ST1464: A predominant genotype of Staphylococcus aureus subsp. anaerobius isolated from sheep in Sudan. Journal of Infection in Developing Countries, 4 (04), pp. 235-238.
Arvand, M., Raoult, D. and Feil, E. J., 2010. Multi-locus sequence typing of a geographically and temporally diverse sample of the highly clonal human pathogen bartonella quintana. PLoS ONE, 5 (3), e9765.
Harris, S. R., Feil, E. J., Holden, M. T. G., Quail, M. A., Nickerson, E. K., Chantratita, N., Gardete, S., Tavares, A., Day, N., Lindsay, J. A., Edgeworth, J. D., de Lencastre, H., Parkhill, J., Peacock, S. J. and Bentley, S. D., 2010. Evolution of MRSA during hospital transmission and intercontinental spread. Science, 327 (5964), pp. 469-474.
Sim, B. M. Q., Chantratita, N., Ooi, W. F., Nandi, T., Tewhey, R., Wuthiekanun, V., Thaipadungpanit, J., Tumapa, S., Ariyaratne, P., Sung, W.-K., Sem, X. H., Chua, H. H., Ramnarayanan, K., Lin, C. H., Liu, Y., Feil, E. J., Glass, M. B., Tan, G., Peacock, S. J. and Tan, P., 2010. Genomic acquisition of a capsular polysaccharide virulence cluster by non-pathogenic Burkholderia isolates. Genome Biology, 11 (8), R89.
Wuthiekanun, V., Limmathurotsakul, D., Chantratita, N., Feil, E. J., Day, N. P. J. and Peacock, S. J., 2009. Burkholderia pseudomallei is genetically diverse in agricultural land in Northeast Thailand. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 3 (8), e496.
Ros, V. I. D., Fleming, V. M., Feil, E. J. and Breeuwer, J. A. J., 2009. How diverse is the genus Wolbachia? Multiple-gene sequencing reveals a putatively new Wolbachia supergroup recovered from spider mites (Acari: Tetranychidae). Applied and Environmental Microbiology, 75 (4), pp. 1036-1043.
Fan, J., Shu, M., Zhang, G., Zhou, W., Jiang, Y., Zhu, Y., Chen, G., Peacock, S. J., Wan, C., Pan, W. and Feil, E. J., 2009. Biogeography and virulence of Staphylococcus aureus. PLoS ONE, 4 (7), e6216.
Ruimy, R., Armand-Lefevre, L., Barbier, F., Ruppe, E., Cocojaru, R., Mesli, Y., Maiga, A., Benkalfat, M., Benchouk, S., Hassaine, H., Dufourcq, J. -B., Nareth, C., Sarthou, J. -L., Andremont, A. and Feil, E. J., 2009. Comparisons between geographically diverse samples of carried Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Bacteriology, 191 (18), pp. 5577-5583.
Hay, S. I., Aanensen, D. M., Huntley, D. M., Feil, E. J., al-Own, F.'a. and Spratt, B. G., 2009. EpiCollect: linking smartphones to web applications for epidemiology, ecology and community data collection. PLoS ONE, 4 (9), e6968.
Smyth, D. S., Feil, E. J., Meaney, W. J., Hartigan, P. J., Tollersrud, T., Fitzgerald, J. R., Enright, M. C. and Smyth, C. J., 2009. Molecular genetic typing reveals further insights into the diversity of animal-associated Staphylococcus aureus. Journal of Medical Microbiology, 58 (10), pp. 1343-1353.
Xu, B. L., Zhang, G., Ye, H. F., Feil, E. J., Chen, G. R., Zhou, X. M., Zhan, X. M., Chen, S. M. and Pan, W. B., 2009. Predominance of the Hungarian clone (ST 239-III) among hospital-acquired meticillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates recovered throughout mainland China. Journal of Hospital Infection, 71 (3), pp. 245-255.
Balbi, K. J., Rocha, E. P. C. and Feil, E. J., 2009. The Temporal Dynamics of Slightly Deleterious Mutations in Escherichia coli and Shigella spp. Molecular Biology and Evolution, 26 (2), pp. 345-355.
Tumapa, S., Holden, M. T. G., Vesaratchavest, M., Wuthiekanun, V., Limmathurotsakul, D., Chierakul, W., Feil, E. J., Currie, B. J., Day, N. P. J., Nierman, W. C. and Peacock, S. J., 2008. Burkholderia pseudomallei genome plasticity associated with genomic island variation. BMC Genomics, 9 (190).
Atkins, K. L., Burman, J. D., Chamberlain, E. S., Cooper, J. E., Poutrel, B., Bagby, S., Jenkins, T. A., Feil, E. J. and van den Elsen, J. M. H., 2008. S. aureus IgG-binding proteins SpA and Sbi: host specificity and mechanisms of immune complex formation. Molecular Immunology, 45 (6), pp. 1600-1611.
Chantratita, N., Wuthiekanun, V., Limmathurotsakul, D., Vesaratchavest, M., Thanwisai, A., Amornchai, P., Tumapa, S., Feil, E. J., Day, N. P. and Peacock, S. J., 2008. Genetic Diversity and Microevolution of Burkholderia pseudomallei in the Environment. PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, 2 (2), e182.
Vitorino, L. R., Margos, G., Feil, E. J., Collares-Pereira, M., Zé-Zé, L. and Kurtenbach, K., 2008. Fine-scale phylogeographic structure of Borrelia lusitaniae revealed by multilocus sequence typing. PLoS ONE, 3 (12), e4002.
Margos, G., Gatewood, A. G., Aanensen, D. M., Hanincova, K., Terekhova, D., Vollmer, S. A., Cornet, M., Piesman, J., Donaghy, M., Bormane, A., Hurn, M. A., Feil, E., Fish, D., Casjens, S., Wormser, G. P., Schwartz, I. and Kurtenbach, K., 2008. MLST of housekeeping genes captures geographic population structure and suggests a European origin of Borrelia burgdorferi. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105 (25), pp. 8730-8735.
Feil, E. J., Nickerson, E. K., Chantratita, N., Wuthiekanun, V., Srisomang, P., Cousins, R., Pan, W., Zhang, G., Xu, B., Day, N. P. J. and Peacock, S. J., 2008. Rapid detection of the pandemic methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus clone ST 239, a dominant strain in Asian hospitals. Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 46 (4), pp. 1520-1522.
Sim, S. H., Yu, Y., Lin, C. H., Karuturi, R. K. M., Wuthiekanun, V., Tuanyok, A., Chua, H. H., Ong, C., Paramalingam, S. S., Tan, G., Tang, L., Lau, G., Ooi, E. E., Woods, D., Feil, E., Peacock, S. J. and Tan, P., 2008. The Core and Accessory Genomes of Burkholderia pseudomallei: Implications for Human Melioidosis. PLoS Pathogens, 4 (10), e1000178.
Ruimy, R., Maiga, A., Armand-Lefevre, L., Maiga, I., Diallo, A., Koumare, A. K., Ouattara, K., Soumare, S., Gaillard, K., Lucet, J. C., Andremont, A. and Feil, E. J., 2008. The carriage population of Staphylococcus aureus from Mali is composed of a combination of pandemic clones and the divergent Panton-Valentine leukocidin-positive genotype ST152. Journal of Bacteriology, 190 (11), pp. 3962-3968.
