Abstract: Multilocus sequence typing (MLST) was proposed as a nucleotide sequence based approach that could be applied to many bacterial pathogens. It analyzed allelic variation at multiple housekeeping loci by nucleotide sequencing of internal fragments. MLST combined developments in high throughput sequencing and bioinformatics with established population genetics techniques to provide a portable, reproducible, and scalable typing system that reflected the population and evolutionary biology of bacterial pathogens.