Multiplex PCR analysis for species specific express-identification of orthopoxviruses

A method for one-stage rapid identification of the four orthopovirus species, which are pathogenic to humans, involving multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MPCR) was developed. Five pairs of oligonucleotides primers were simultaneously used in the mentioned MPCR assay of orthopoxvirus DNA; one of the pairs was genus-specific, the remaining four primers were species-specific for variola, monkey-pox, cowpox and vaccine-pox. The specificity and sensitivity of the developed method were evaluated through analyzing the DNA samples of 55 orthopoxvirus strains, including samples isolated from human clinical materials.     

An overview of foodborne pathogen detection: In the perspective of biosensors

Food safety is a global health goal and the foodborne diseases take a major crisis on health. Therefore, detection of microbial pathogens in food is the solution to the prevention and recognition of problems related to health and safety. For this reason, a comprehensive literature survey has been carried out aiming to give an overview in the field of foodborne pathogen detection. Conventional and standard bacterial detection methods such as culture and colony counting methods, immunology-based methods and polymerase chain reaction based methods, may take up to several hours or even a few days to yield an answer. Obviously this is inadequate, and recently many researchers are focusing towards the progress of rapid methods. Although new technologies like biosensors show potential approaches, further research and development is essential before biosensors become a real and reliable choice. New bio-molecular techniques for food pathogen detection are being developed to improve the biosensor characteristics such as sensitivity and selectivity, also which is rapid, reliable, effective and suitable for in situ analysis. This paper not only offers an overview in the area of microbial pathogen detection but it also describes the conventional methods, analytical techniques and recent developments in food pathogen detection, identification and quantification, with an emphasis on biosensors.     

拉曼光谱检测微生物的研究方法和进展北大核心

快速准确地识别和鉴定微生物对于环境科、食品质量以及医学诊断等领域研究至关重要。拉曼光谱(Raman spectroscopy)已经被证明是一种能够实现微生物快速诊断的新技术,在提供微生物指纹图谱信息的同时,能够快速、非标记、无创、敏感地在固体和液体环境中实现微生物单细胞水平的检测。本文简单介绍了拉曼光谱的基本概念和原理,重点综述了拉曼光谱微生物检测应用中的样品处理方法及光谱数据处理方法。除此之外,本文概括了拉曼光谱在细菌、病毒和真菌中的应用,其中单独概括了拉曼在细菌快速鉴定和抗生素药敏检测中的应用。最后,本文阐述了拉曼光谱在微生物检测中的挑战和展望。     

Differentiation of capripoxvirus species and strains by polymerase chain reaction

A fast and simple method for capripoxvirus species identification has been developed. The method is based on multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MPCR) with species-specific primers and does not require nucleotide sequencing or restriction analysis of PCR products. To differentiate vaccine stains used in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union from epizootic isolates of sheep pox virus, a method based on restriction analysis of the ankyrin-repeat protein gene fragment amplified by PCR has been developed. Being highly specific, both methods may be used for routine diagnosis of capripoxvirus-associated diseases.     

Differentiation of capripoxvirus species and strains by polymerase chain reaction

A fast and simple method for capripoxvirus species identification has been developed. The method is based on multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MPCR) with species-specific primers and does not require nucleotide sequencing or restriction analysis of PCR products. To differentiate vaccine strains used in Russia and countries of the former Soviet Union from epizootic isolates of sheeppox virus, a method based on restriction analysis of the ankyrin-repeat protein gene fragment amplified by PCR has been developed. Being highly specific, both methods may be used for routine diagnosis of capripoxvirus-associated diseases.     

Genetic comparison of Bacillus anthracis and its close relatives using amplified fragment length polymorphism and polymerase chain reaction analysis

Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis allows a rapid, relatively simple analysis of a large portion of a microbial genome, providing information about the species and its phylogenetic relationship to other microbes (Vos et al. 1995). The method simply surveys the genome for length and sequence polymorphisms. The AFLP pattern identified can be used for comparison to the genomes of other species. Unlike other methods, it does not rely on analysis of a single genetic locus that may bias the interpretation of results and does not require any prior knowledge of the targeted organism. Moreover, a standard set of reagents can be applied to any species without using species-specific information or molecular probes. We are using AFLP analysis to rapidly identify different bacterial species. A comparison of AFLP profiles generated from a large battery of Bacillus anthracis strains shows very little variability among different isolates (Keim et al. 1997). By contrast, there is a significant difference between AFLP profiles generated for any B. anthracis strain and even the most closely related Bacillus species. Sufficient variability is apparent among all known microbial species to allow phylogenetic analysis based on large numbers of genetically unlinked loci. These striking differences among AFLP profiles allow unambiguous identification of previously identified species and phylogenetic placement of newly characterized isolates relative to known species based on a large number of independent genetic loci. Data generated thus far show that the method provides phylogenetic analyses that are consistent with other widely accepted phylogenetic methods. However, AFLP analysis provides a more detailed analysis of the targets and samples a much larger portion of the genome. Consequently, it provides an inexpensive, rapid means of characterizing microbial isolates to further differentiate among strains and closely related microbial species. Such information cannot be rapidly generated by other means. AFLP sample analysis quickly generates a very large amount of molecular information about microbial genomes. However, this information cannot be analysed rapidly using manual methods. We are developing a large archive of electronic AFLP signatures that is being used to identify isolates collected from medical, veterinary, forensic and environmental samples. We are also developing the computational packages necessary to rapidly and unambiguously analyse the AFLP profiles and conduct a phylogenetic comparison of these data relative to information already in our database. We will use this archive and the associated algorithms to determine the species identity of previously uncharacterized isolates and place them phylogenetically relative to other microbes based on their AFLP signatures. This study provides significant new information about microbes with environmental, veterinary and medical significance. This information can be used in further studies to understand the relationships among these species and the factors that distinguish them from one another. It should also allow the identification of unique factors that contribute to important microbial traits, including pathogenicity and virulence. We are also using AFLP data to identify, isolate and sequence DNA fragments that are unique to particular microbial species and strains. The fragment patterns and sequence information provide insights into the complexity and organization of bacterial genomes relative to one another. They also provide the information necessary for the development of species-specific polymerase chain reaction primers that can be used to interrogate complex samples for the presence of B. anthracis, other microbial pathogens or their remnants.     

Use of 16S rRNA Gene for Identification of a Broad Range of Clinically Relevant Bacterial Pathogens

According to World Health Organization statistics of 2011, infectious diseases remain in the top five causes of mortality worldwide. However, despite sophisticated research tools for microbial detection, rapid and accurate molecular diagnostics for identification of infection in humans have not been extensively adopted. Time-consuming culture-based methods remain to the forefront of clinical microbial detection. The 16S rRNA gene, a molecular marker for identification of bacterial species, is ubiquitous to members of this domain and, thanks to ever-expanding databases of sequence information, a useful tool for bacterial identification. In this study, we assembled an extensive repository of clinical isolates (n = 617), representing 30 medically important pathogenic species and originally identified using traditional culture-based or non-16S molecular methods. This strain repository was used to systematically evaluate the ability of 16S rRNA for species level identification. To enable the most accurate species level classification based on the paucity of sequence data accumulated in public databases, we built a Naïve Bayes classifier representing a diverse set of high-quality sequences from medically important bacterial organisms. We show that for species identification, a model-based approach is superior to an alignment based method. Overall, between 16S gene based and clinical identities, our study shows a genus-level concordance rate of 96% and a species-level concordance rate of 87.5%. We point to multiple cases of probable clinical misidentification with traditional culture based identification across a wide range of gram-negative rods and gram-positive cocci as well as common gram-negative cocci.     

<Emphasis Type="Italic">Candida dubliniensis</Emphasis>: Epidemiology and Phenotypic Methods for Identification

Candida dubliniensis is an emerging pathogen first described in 1995, which shares many phenotypic features with Candida albicans and therefore may be misidentified in microbial laboratories. Despite various phenotypic techniques described in the literature to differentiate the two species, the correct identification of C. dubliniensis remains problematic due to phenotypic similarities between these species. Thus, as the differences between both are best characterized at genetic levels, several molecular methods have been proposed to provide a specific and rapid identification of this species. Epidemiological studies have shown that C. dubliniensis is prevalent throughout the world and it is primarily associated with oral carriage and oropharyngeal infections in patients infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). However, data acquired from its isolation from other healthy and immunocompromised patients are variable, and there is still no real consensus on the epidemiological relevance of this species. In this article, we review the various phenotypic methods used in the identification of C. dubliniensis and the epidemiological impact of this new species.     

16S rRNA序列分析法在医学微生物鉴定中的应用

１６Ｓ ｒＲＮＡ序列分析作为微生物系统分类的主要依据已得到了广泛认同,随着微生物核糖体数据库的日益完善,该技术成为细菌分类和鉴定的一个有力工具。本文概述了 １６５ ｒＲＮＡ序列分析法的技术步骤以及该技术在医学微生物研究中的应用,总结了目前文献报导的各种致病微生物种属特异性 １６５ ｒＲＮＡ引物和探针序列,同时分析了该技术在应用中存在的一些问题。     

数据处理和分析方法在 MALDI-TOF MS鉴定微生物中的应用

基质辅助激光解吸电离飞行时间质谱(MALDI-TOF MS)因其具有快速、准确、高通量等特点在食品微生物检测和临床微生物鉴定领域有广泛的应用。对MALDI-TOF MS数据的预处理和分析是微生物鉴定的关键步骤,通过对数据的处理可以从大量的数据中提取微生物的特征肽或者蛋白信息,并通过有监督和无监督学习方法对这些特征信息进行分类和聚类,从而实现对微生物的鉴定、分型和同源性分析。本文就MALDI-TOF MS鉴定微生物中所应用的数理统计分析方法和数据分析软件进行综述。     

Development of a PCR assay for identification of the Bacillus cereus group species

Aims:  A PCR technique was developed as a reliable and rapid identification method for the Bacillus cereus group species, based on a unique conserved sequence of the motB gene (encoding flagellar motor protein) from B. cereus , Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus anthracis .
Methods and Results:  Primer locations were identified against eight strains of the B. cereus group spp. from nucleotide sequences available in the National Centre for Biotechnology Information database. The PCR assay was applied for the identification of 117 strains of the B. cereus group spp. and 19 strains from other microbial species, with special emphasis on foodborne pathogens.
Conclusion:  The designed cross-species primers are group specific and did not react with DNA from other Bacillus and non- Bacillus species either motile or not. The primers system enabled us to detect 10³ CFU of B. cereus cells per millilitre of sample.
Significance and Impact of the Study:  Bacillus cereus group spp. belongs to one of the most prevalent foodborne pathogens. Bacterial growth results in production of different toxins; therefore, consumption of food containing >10⁶ bacteria per gram may result in emetic and diarrhoeal syndromes. A rapid and sensitive bacterial detection method is significant for food safety.     

机器学习在MALDI-TOF MS鉴定微生物中的应用

基质辅助激光解吸/电离飞行时间质谱(matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry,MALDI-TOF MS)是一种新兴的高通量技术,已广泛应用于临床微生物、食品微生物和水产微生物的快速鉴定。如何进一步提高MALDI-TOF MS在微生物鉴定中的分辨率是该技术当前面临的一大挑战。为了高效处理大量高维微生物MALDI-TOF MS数据,各种机器学习算法得到了应用。本文综述了机器学习在微生物MALDI-TOFMS鉴定中的应用。首先,本文在介绍机器学习在微生物MALDI-TOF MS分类中的工作流程后,进一步对MALDI-TOF MS的数据特征、MALDI-TOF MS数据库、数据的预处理和模型的性能评估进行了描述。然后讨论了典型的机器学习分类算法和集成学习算法的应用。简单的机器学习算法很难满足微生物MALDI-TOF MS分类的高分辨率的需求,而组合不同机器学习算法和集成学习算法可以获得更好的微生物分类性能。在MALDI-TOF MS数据的预处理方面,小波算法和遗传算法的应用最广,它们...     

Rapid molecular identification of Listeria species by use of real-time PCR and high-resolution melting analysis

Identification of Listeria species via a molecular method is critical for food safety and clinical diagnosis. In this study, an assay integrating real-time quantitative PCR (Q-PCR) with high-resolution melting (HRM) curve analysis was developed and assessed for rapid identification of six Listeria species. The ssrA gene, which encodes a transfer-messenger RNA (tmRNA) is conserved and common to all bacterial phyla, contains a variable domain in Listeria spp. Therefore, Q-PCR and a HRM profile were applied to characterize this gene. Fifty-three Listeria species and 45 non-Listeria species were detected using one primer set, with an accuracy of 100% in reference to conventional methods. There was a 93.3% correction rate to 30 artificially contaminated samples. Thus, Q-PCR with melting profiling analysis proved able to identify Listeria species accurately. Consequently, this study demonstrates that the assay we developed is a functional tool for rapidly identifying six Listeria species, and has the potential for discriminating novel species food safety and epidemiological research.     

多重PCR快速确证外源基因在转基因小麦后代的传递

根据转入小麦0世代中的高分子谷蛋白亚基1Dx5基因和报告基因uidA、作为选择标记的除草剂抗性基因bar的序列,设计合成三对引物。以整合uidA+bar的质粒pAHC25和整合1Dx5的质粒p1Dx5为模板寻找uidA与1Dx5及或bar多重扩增的最佳模板浓度及最适退火温度。MPCR模板量是单对引物扩增时的两倍,引物浓度同常规PCR为0.3μM,uidA与bar的适宜退火温度范围为57.1 - 62.3℃;uidA与1Dx5为60.0℃-60.6℃;uidA、bar、1Dx5的最适合退火温度范围为57.0℃-58.4℃。MPCR对大小相差50bp及以下的多重扩增片段可通过10%的非变性聚丙烯酰胺凝胶电泳分离。在此基础上对14株T1代转基因小麦基因组DNA进行多重PCR扩增,筛选出基因未分离的小麦后代,并与常规PCR比较,结果一致,其中11株同时传递1Dx5和bar基因、1株同时传递uidA、bar和1Dx5基因,3株未检测到外源基因。表明MPCR在快速确证外源基因在转基因植株后代的传递中作用显著。研究在常规PCR反应体系上,对模板浓度和多重引物退火温度进行微调,且把MPCR技术与PAGE技术结合起来,提高了研究结果的准确性,获得了较好的扩增和检测效果,简化了MPCR优化程序,使MPCR的优势更明显,为该技术的广泛应用提供了借鉴。     

Assessment of pollution impact on aquatic microbial communities based on DNA hybridization and protozoan identification: preliminary method development and comparison

Common methods of assessing the biological impact of point source discharge involve a census of organisms above and below the discharge. The identification and enumeration of organisms necessary for this approach can be time consuming and costly. When microbial communities are used, identification and enumeration are often impossible because the majority of species are identifiable only when cultured and most native species cannot be cultured. As such, little is known about the response of nonculturable aquatic microbial communities to anthropogenic changes. We isolated aquatic microbial DNA from colonized artificial substrates in two streams receiving industrial waste. DNA was isolated from the microbial communities upstream and downstream of the discharges and the similarity of these communities were compared by DNA-DNA hybridization. These novel estimates of impact were compared to more conventional estimates based on a component of the microbial communities that could be readily identified, the protozoans. Protozoan species were identified and similarity between upstream and downstream stations was assessed using Jaccard's similarity index.In the Roanoke River, protozoan species richness was significantly lower at the downstream station. Both Jaccard's coefficients and DNA hybridizations indicated that upstream communities were more similar to each other than with the downstream site. However, these differences were not significant. Estimates of community similarity from Jaccard's coefficients and DNA hybridizations were not correlated. In Peak Creek, protozoan species richness was significantly lower at the downstream station. Jaccard's coefficients and DNA hybridizations were not significantly higher within upstream stations than between upstream and downstream stations. The two similarity measures were not correlated. Problems in this preliminary study included small sample sizes and highly variable background on hybridization membranes resulting from the use of nonradioactive DNA probe label and detection methods. Alternative approaches using radioisotopes or COT curves may be more viable means of making molecular methods a useful tool in impact assessment.     

The Detection of Microorganisms and Organic Material on Stainless Steel Food Contact Surfaces

Few methods are available for the differentiation of microorganism and organic material on surfaces, although such mixtures are commonplace, particularly in the food industry, where food debris (soil) and microorganisms frequently foul food contact surfaces and pose challenges in terms of hygiene and cleanability. It would be of value to discern any differences in removal or persistence on surfaces. This review considers some methods which are available. Direct epifluorescence microscopy (DEM) enables visual differentiation, but traditional microbiological culture methods cannot detect organic soil. Atomic force microscopy (AFM) provides images of the surface on the nanometer scale, with minimal preparation, and is able to visualise both cellular and acellular components of the mixture, particularly prior to cleaning. Confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) also has potential in this area. Surface sensitive methods such as X-Ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) and Time-of-flight secondary ion mass spectrometry (ToFSIMS) provide information on chemical species present on a surface. Those chemical species more likely on microbial cells may be differentiated from those more likely in a specified organic soil, thus comparisons may be made as to differential removal of the organic soil and microbial cells. These methods may be of value in studies on the fouling and cleanability of surfaces.     

Rapid and robust MALDI-TOF MS techniques for microbial identification: a brief overview of their diverse applications

in mass spectrometry have enabled the investigation of various biological systems by directly analyzing diverse sets of biomolecules (i.e., proteins, lipids, and carbohydrates), thus making a significant impact on the life sciences field. Over the past decade, matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization time-of-flight mass spectrometry (MALDI-TOF MS) has been widely utilized as a rapid and reliable method for the identification of microorganisms. MALDI-TOF MS has come into widespread use despite its relatively low resolving power (full width at half maximum, FWHM: < 5,000) and its incompatibility with tandem MS analysis, features with which other high-resolution mass spectrometers are equipped. Microbial identification is achieved by searching databases containing mass spectra of peptides and proteins extracted from microorganisms of interest, using scoring algorithms to match analyzed spectra with reference spectra. In this paper, we give a brief overview of the diverse applications of rapid and robust MALDI-TOF MS-based techniques for microbial identification in a variety of fields, such as clinical diagnosis and environmental and food monitoring. We also describe the fundamental principles of MALDI-TOF MS. The general specifications of the two major MS-based microbial identification systems available in the global market (BioTyper® and VITEK® MS Plus) and the distribution of these instruments in Republic of Korea are also discussed. The current review provides an understanding of this emerging microbial identification and classification technology and will help bacteriologists and cell biologists take advantage of this powerful technique.     

Multiplex PCR screening detects small p53 deletions and insertions in human ovarian cancer cell lines

Mutations at the p53 tumor suppressor gene locus are a frequent genetic alteration associated with human ovarian carcinoma. Little information exists regarding whether mutational events occur other than point mutations and large deletions, causing loss of heterozygosity. Small intragenic deletions and insertions in the p53 gene have been observed in various human neoplasias. We developed a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (MPCR) screening assay to amplify the complete p53 coding region from genomic DNA in a single step. Deletions and/or insertions were found in six out of 11 newly established ovarian carcinoma cell lines. MPCR detected deletions as small as 2bp, as confirmed by nucleotide sequence analysis. Most of the observed alterations (6/7) were homozygous or hemizygous. Structural aberrations of the p53 gene possibly leading to loss of p53 cell cycle control may be a consequence of a slipped-mispairing mechanism in rapid DNA replication during repetitious ovulation and wound repair of ovarian epithelial cells. MPCR may be a valuable tool for screening for possible p53 deletion and insertion mutations not only in ovarian cancer but also in other malignancies.     

An optimized protocol for the identification of diatoms,flagellated algae and pathogenic protozoa with phylochips

In the past decade, molecular probe‐based methods have proved successful in improving both the efficiency and accuracy of the identification of microorganisms, especially those that are devoid of distinct morphological features. However until recently, these methods had the major drawback of being limited to the identification of only one or just a few species at a time. With the use of DNA microarrays, it is possible to identify large numbers of taxa on a single‐glass slide, the so‐called phylochip. There are numerous microarray protocols in the literature. These protocols share the same principles, but vary in details, e.g. labelling approach or detergent concentration in the washing buffer. In this study, we show that even small variations in hybridization protocols can have a strong impact on the outcome of the microarray hybridization. An optimized protocol for species identification on phylochips is presented. The optimized protocol is the result of a joined effort of three laboratories to develop phylochips for microbial species identification.