Supplementary Material 5

The use of Multilocus Sequence Typing (MLST) in the identification of <i>Escherichia coli</i> is crucial for understanding its genetic diversity, evolutionary relationships, and epidemiological significance. MLST provides a standardized and highly reproducible method for strain classification by analyzing variations in housekeeping genes, enabling precise identification of distinct sequence types (STs). This approach is particularly important in differentiating pathogenic <i>E. coli</i> strains, such as extraintestinal pathogenic <i>E. coli</i> (ExPEC) and Shiga toxin-producing <i>E. coli</i> (STEC), from commensal isolates. Additionally, MLST helps track the spread of antimicrobial-resistant clones, monitor outbreak sources, and study global strain distribution through publicly available databases like PubMLST. By offering a high-resolution and scalable approach to bacterial typing, MLST plays a vital role in clinical diagnostics, infection control, and evolutionary studies of <i>E. coli</i>.