title: The polymerase chain reaction: an epidemiological tool to differentiate between two clusters of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica strains.
abstract: A primer set designed to amplify the enterotoxin (yst) gene of pathogenic Yersinia enterocolitica strains generated two different electrophoretic profiles of the target sequence when a collection of strains of worldwide origin was screened. Serovars O:1,3; O:2a,3; O:3; O:5,27 and O:9, known as European strains, produced a 200-bp fragment that matched the size of the target sequence. However, serovars O:4,32; O:8; O:13a,13b; O:20 and O:21, known as American strains, generated two fragments of 1.4 and 1.6 kb. The amplified products of one American strain were sequenced and the presence of the yst gene was confirmed in both fragments. Thus, the potential of the polymerase chain reaction to be used as an epidemiological tool in differentiation between the two clusters of pathogenic strains of Y. enterocolitica could be demonstrated.
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, University of Queensland, Australia.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ibrahim
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Liesack
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Pike
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Stackebrandt
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012689:Sequence Homology, Nucleic Acid; D015008:Yersinia enterocolitica / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial