Spread of Neisseria gonorrhoeae FC428 Subclone MLST ST13871

The main objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between a ceftriaxone-resistant Neisseria gonorrhoeae strain GX211022, isolated from China, and MLST ST13871 strains reported internationally. In this study, we determined the susceptibility of the N. gonorrhoeae isolate to antibiotics using the agar dilution method. Genotyping was performed through N. gonorrhoeae sequence typing for antimicrobial resistance (NG-STAR), N. gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing (NG-MAST), and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Additionally, phylogenetic analysis was conducted to explore the genetic relatedness to other MLST ST13871 strains. Isolate GX211022 was identified to possess penA allele 60.001 with a ceftriaxone MIC = 1 mg/L and was classified as MLST ST13871 and NG-STAR ST233. Phylogenetic analysis indicated that GX211022 was clustered with isolates from Vietnam, and confirmed that all MLST ST13871 strains are a subclone of the internationally disseminated high-level ceftriaxone-resistant FC428 clone. These findings highlight abundant regional spread of MLST ST13871 in Southeast Asia.