Pandoraea apista is an emerging cystic fibrosis (CF) pathogen that is a motile, non-spore-forming, non-fermenting, polymyxin-resistant, Gram-negative bacillus. The genus classification of Pandoraea was described in 2000 following taxonomic revision of isolates that had phenotypically been identified as either Burkholderia or Ralstonia species. Pandoraea species have been isolated from a variety of clinical specimens from both CF and non-CF patients including respiratory specimens, blood, and urine. Many CF patients experience a decline in lung function after chronic colonization with Pandoraea is established that may be due, in part, to a Pandoraea-specific pro-inflammatory response.
To date there has been no whole genome sequencing projects for P. apista. We believe there is a lot to learn from the P. apista genome. Using both Oxford Nanopore's MinION and Illumina MiSeq, we have set out to produce the first sequenced P. apista genome.
Dr. Timothy Read - tread at emory dot edu