title: Discrimination of human pathogenic subspecies of Francisella tularensis by using restriction fragment length polymorphism.
abstract: We describe the use of two insertion sequence elements (ISFtu1 and ISFtu2) in Francisella tularensis to type strains by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). The RFLP profiles of 17 epidemiologically unrelated isolates were determined and compared. Our results showed that RFLP profiles can be used to assign F. tularensis strains into five main groups corresponding to strains of F. tularensis subsp. tularensis, F. tularensis strain ATCC 6223, strains of F. tularensis subsp. holarctica, strains of F. tularensis subsp. holarctica from Japan, and F. tularensis subsp. mediaasiatica. The results confirm the genetic identities of these subspecies and also support the suggestion that strains of F. tularensis subsp. holarctica from Japan should be considered members of a separate biovar. These findings should support future studies to determine the genetic differences between strains of F. tularensis at the whole-genome level.
authors.affiliation: Defence Science and Technology Laboratory, CBS Porton Down, Salisbury, Wiltshire SP4 0JQ, United Kingdom. RMTHOMAS@dstl.gov.uk
authors.forename: Rebecca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Thomas
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Johansson
authors.forename: Brendan
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Neeson
authors.forename: Karen
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Isherwood
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sjöstedt
authors.forename: Jill
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Ellis
authors.forename: Richard W
authors.initials: RW
authors.lastname: Titball
mesh_terms: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements / Q000502:physiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D005604:Francisella tularensis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D006801:Humans; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
chemical_list: D004251:DNA Transposable Elements; D004269:DNA, Bacterial