This Article
Right arrow Full Text
Right arrow Full Text (PDF)
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrowReprints and Permissions
Right arrow Copyright Information
Right arrow Books from ASM Press
Right arrow MicrobeWorld
Citing Articles
Right arrow Citing Articles via HighWire
Right arrow Citing Articles via Google Scholar
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Tondella, M. L. C.
Right arrow Articles by Mayer, L. W.
Right arrow Search for Related Content
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Tondella, M. L. C.
Right arrow Articles by Mayer, L. W.

 Previous Article  |  Next Article 

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 1999, p. 2402-2407, Vol. 37, No. 8
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0

Cleavase Fragment Length Polymorphism Analysis of Neisseria meningitidis Basic Metabolic Genes

Maria Lucia C. Tondella,1,* Mike W. Reeves,1 Tanja Popovic,1 Nancy Rosenstein,1 Brian P. Holloway,2 and Leonard W. Mayer1

Meningitis and Special Pathogens Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases,1 and Scientific Resources Program,2 National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia 30333

Received 16 February 1999/Returned for modification 30 March 1999/Accepted 20 April 1999

Cleavase fragment length polymorphism (CFLP) is a subtyping system based on the property of the enzyme cleavase to recognize junctions between single- and double-stranded regions of DNA formed after denaturation and cooling. To assess the capacity of CFLP for discriminating Neisseria meningitidis serogroup B strains belonging to the electrophoretic type (ET) 5 (ET-5) complex from other serogroup B strains, 30 serogroup B N. meningitidis isolates were subtyped by CFLP with internal fragments of five housekeeping genes, adk, aspC, carA, dhp, and glnA. Two genes (glnA and carA) which demonstrated a high degree of diversity for the serogroup B isolates were then used to further evaluate the suitability of CFLP for screening 50 serogroup C N. meningitidis outbreak-associated and sporadic-case isolates with a single metabolic gene. The results were compared to those from multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE), the current standard subtyping method. CFLP was able to distinguish the ET-5 complex isolates from other serogroup B isolates as efficiently as MEE. Furthermore, CFLP analysis of a single gene was sufficient to identify and cluster the serogroup C isolates belonging to the ET-37 complex from other, unrelated serogroup C isolates but was not capable of differentiating between the isolates of the major individual ETs of this complex (ET-17 and ET-24) causing most serogroup C meningococcal disease outbreaks in the United States. CFLP based on a single gene with a high degree of diversity but not under selective pressure can be applied to the rapid screening of a large number of isolates related to the recognized epidemic complex ET-5 or ET-37. Additionally, CFLP can be used as an initial screening tool to survey the amount of diversity in genes that might be used to develop a DNA sequence-based subtyping system.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Meningitidis and Special Pathogens Branch, Division of Bacterial and Mycotic Diseases, National Center for Infectious Diseases, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, MS C-02, Atlanta, GA 30333. Phone: (404) 639-4057. Fax: (404) 639-3123. E-mail: mlt5{at}cdc.gov.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, August 1999, p. 2402-2407, Vol. 37, No. 8
0095-1137/99/$04.00+0


This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Didelot, X., Urwin, R., Maiden, M. C. J., Falush, D. (2009). Genealogical typing of Neisseria meningitidis. Microbiology 155: 3176-3186 [Abstract] [Full Text]  
  • Bennett, D. E., Cafferkey, M. T. (2003). Multilocus restriction typing: a tool for Neisseria meningitidis strain discrimination. J Med Microbiol 52: 781-787 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


Copyright © 2009 by the American Society for Microbiology.   For an alternate route to Journals.ASM.org, visit: http://intl-journals.asm.org | More Info»