Open AccessGenomic Polymorphisms for Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis Diagnostics
Author(s) -
Makeda Semret,
David C. Alexander,
Christine Y. Turenne,
Petra de Haas,
Pieter Overduin,
Dick van Soolingen,
Debby Cousins,
Marcel A. Behr
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
journal of clinical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.349
H-Index - 255
eISSN - 1070-633X
pISSN - 0095-1137
DOI - 10.1128/jcm.43.8.3704-3712.2005
Subject(s) - paratuberculosis , biology , mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis , mycobacterium , microbiology and biotechnology , strain (injury) , organism , virology , genetics , bacteria , anatomy
Mycobacterium avium subsp.paratuberculosis is an emerging pathogen of mammals and is being actively investigated as a possible zoonotic agent. The lack of reliable diagnostic assays has hampered rational assessment of the prevalence of this organism in humans and animals. We have used a comparative genomic approach to reveal genomic differences betweenM. avium subsp.paratuberculosis and its close relativeM. avium subsp.avium , a highly prevalent environmental organism. From computational and DNA microarray-based study of two prototype strains,M. avium subsp.avium strain 104 andM. avium subsp.paratuberculosis strain K10, we have uncovered two types of large sequence polymorphisms (LSPs): those present in the former but missing in the latter (LSPA s) and those only present in the latter (LSPP s). We examined the distribution of 3 LSPA s and 17 LSPP s across a panel of 383M. avium complex isolates in order to determine their potential utility for the development of accurate diagnostic tests. Our results show that the absence of LSPA 8 is 100% specific for the identification ofM. avium subsp.paratuberculosis . Of the 17 LSPP s, 10 regions were not specific forM. avium subsp.paratuberculosis while 7 were shown to be highly specific (>98%) and, in some cases, highly sensitive as well (up to 95%). These data highlight the need to evaluate these regions across a diverse panel of clinical and environmental isolates and indicate the LSPs best suited forM. avium subsp.paratuberculosis diagnostics.