Typing Clostridium difficile strains based on tandem repeat sequences.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Genotyping of epidemic Clostridium difficile strains is necessary to track their emergence and spread. Portability of genotyping data is desirable to facilitate inter-laboratory comparisons and epidemiological studies.

Results

This report presents results from a systematic screen for variation in repetitive DNA in the genome of C. difficile. We describe two tandem repeat loci, designated 'TR6' and 'TR10', which display extensive sequence variation that may be useful for sequence-based strain typing. Based on an investigation of 154 C. difficile isolates comprising 75 ribotypes, tandem repeat sequencing demonstrated excellent concordance with widely used PCR ribotyping and equal discriminatory power. Moreover, tandem repeat sequences enabled the reconstruction of t

SUBMITTER: Zaiss NH 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2628660 | biostudies-literature | 2009 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature