Genome-based model for differentiating between infection and carriage <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i>

Defining the disease-causing isolates is the first step toward disease control. However, the disease-associated genetic elements of <i>Staphylococcus aureus</i> remain unknown, which leads to difficulties in differentiating infection isolates from harmless carriage isolates. Our comprehensive genome-wide association study (GWAS) found consensus evidence that certain genetic elements are overrepresented among infection isolates than carriage isolates, suggesting that the enrichment of disease-associated elements may promote infection. Notably, a single k-mer predictor achieved a high classification accuracy, which forms the basis for early diagnostics and interventions.