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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz
ISSN: 1678-8060
EISSN: 1678-8060
Vol. 93, No. 5, 1998, pp. 581-586
Bioline Code: oc98112
Full paper language: English
Document type: Research Article
Document available free of charge

Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 93, No. 5, 1998, pp. 581-586

 en Molecular Epidemiologic Typing Systems of Bacterial Pathogens: Current Issues and Perpectives
Marc J Struelens

Abstract

The epidemiologic typing of bacterial pathogens can be
applied to answer a number of different questions: in case of
outbreak, what is the extent and mode of transmission of epidemic
clone(s )? In case of long-term surveillance, what is the
prevalence over time and the geographic spread of epidemic and
endemic clones in the population? A number of molecular typing
methods can be used to classify bacteria based on genomic
diversity into groups of closely-related isolates (presumed to
arise from a common ancestor in the same chain of transmission)
and divergent, epidemiologically-unrelated isolates (arising from
independent sources of infection). Ribotyping, IS-RFLP
fingerprinting, macrorestriction analysis of chromosomal DNA and
PCR-fingerprinting using arbitrary sequence or repeat element
primers are useful methods for outbreak investigations and
regional surveillance. Library typing systems based on multilocus
sequence-based analysis and strain-specific probe hybridization
schemes are in development for the international surveillance of
major pathogens like Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Accurate
epidemiological interpretation of data obtained with molecular
typing systems still requires additional research on the
evolution rate of polymorphic loci in bacterial pathogens.

Keywords
bacterial typing - DNA polymorphism - pulsed-field gel electrophoresis - ribotyping - RFLP typing - PCR fingerprinting - randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) - cross-infection - epidemiology -surveillance

 
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