Open AccessIdentification of Yersinia pestis as the causative organism of plague in India as determined by 16S rDNA sequencing and RAPD‐based genomic fingerprinting
Author(s) -
Shivaji S,
Vijaya Bhanu N,
Aggarwal R.K
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2000.tb09238.x
Subject(s) - yersinia pestis , biology , plague (disease) , rapd , dna profiling , microbiology and biotechnology , outbreak , population , 16s ribosomal rna , genetics , virology , bacteria , dna , virulence , gene , genetic diversity , history , demography , archaeology , sociology
Eighteen isolates of bacteria obtained from the sputum of pneumonic plague patients and from the liver and spleen of rodents from the plague‐affected areas of India during 1994–1995 when analyzed by 16S rDNA analysis clearly demonstrated that all 18 isolates exhibit an average similarity of 98.5% with the genus Yersinia and 99.1% with Yersinia pestis , thus identifying the isolates as Y. pestis . The isolates from the human plague patients were found to be genetically more homogeneous compared to the isolates from the rodents which were more heterogeneous. An epidemiological linkage among the rodents and human patients is also indicated by 16S rDNA analysis, which suggests that only a sub‐population of the rodents was probably the source of the infectious pathogen to the humans initiating the outbreak of the epidemic. The results of the randomly amplified DNA polymorphisms (RAPD)‐based DNA fingerprinting are in agreement with the above conclusions.