Abstract
A critical component of limiting bacterial disease outbreaks is the tracing of the infection to the index source, which can be facilitated by using a highly discriminating bacterial identification system that will reliably identify genetically related bacterial populations. For pathogenic bacteria with highly conserved genomes, such as the zoonotic pathogen Brucella, finding distinguishing markers or traits for strain identification is challenging. This chapter describes a relatively new procedure for identifying Brucella strains. The procedure, which is called “HOOF prints” (hypervariable octameic oligonucleotide fingerprints), is based on high levels of polymorphism observed at several genomic loci in the Brucella genomes that contain small tandemly repeated deoxyribonucleic sequences. The technique described is designed for medium- to high-throughput analyses. However, the method described can be modified to characterize fewer samples.
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Bricker, B.J., Ewalt, D.R. (2006). HOOF Prints. In: O’Connor, L. (eds) Diagnostic Bacteriology Protocols. Methods in Molecular Biology™, vol 345. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59745-143-6:141
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59745-143-6:141
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-1-58829-594-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-59745-143-7
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