title: A 12.7 kb fragment of the Mycobacterium tuberculosis genome is not present in Mycobacterium bovis.
abstract: Southern blotting, sequence analysis and PCR experiments showed that Mycobacterium bovis and Mycobacterium bovis BCG lack a 12.7 kb fragment present in the genome of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. This region is 337 bp downstream of the RD2 region, which was previously described as being absent from some M. bovis BCG strains. The 12.7 kb fragment should be useful as a target for a PCR test to differentiate M. tuberculosis and M. bovis. An analysis of the 12.7 kb region suggests that it represents a deletion in M. bovis rather than an insertion in M. tuberculosis. The deletion removes most of the mce-3 operon, one of four highly related operons which may be involved in cell entry, and therefore it may contribute to differences in virulence or host range in the two species.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biotecnología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, 1708 Moron, Argentina.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zumárraga
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biotecnología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, 1708 Moron, Argentina.
authors.forename: Fabiana
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Bigi
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Patobiología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, 1708 Moron, Argentina.
authors.forename: Alicia
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Alito
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biotecnología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, 1708 Moron, Argentina.
authors.forename: María I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Romano
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Biotecnología, Centro de Investigaciones en Ciencias Veterinarias, Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria, 1708 Moron, Argentina.
authors.forename: Angel
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Cataldi
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D015139:Blotting, Southern; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009163:Mycobacterium bovis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D009169:Mycobacterium tuberculosis / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017384:Sequence Deletion; D013045:Species Specificity