Extended multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis of Clostridium difficile correlates exactly with ribotyping and enables identification of hospital transmission.

ABSTRACT: PCR ribotyping is currently used in many countries for epidemiological investigation to track transmission and to identify emerging variants of Clostridium difficile. Although PCR ribotyping differentiates over 300 types, it is not always sufficiently discriminatory for epidemiological investigations particularly for common ribotypes, e.g., ribotypes 027, 106, and 017. Multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat analysis (MLVA) is a highly discriminatory molecular subtyping method that has been applied to a number of bacterial species for high-level subtyping. Two MLVA typing schemes for C. difficile have been previously published, each utilizing seven variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) loci on the genome with four loci common to both schemes. Although these schemes are good genotyping meth

SUBMITTER: Manzoor SE 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3187294 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature