title: Development of rationally designed nucleic acid signatures for microbial pathogens.
abstract: The detection and identification of microbial pathogens are critical challenges in clinical medicine and public health surveillance. Advances in genome analysis technology are providing an unprecedented amount of information about bacterial and viral organisms, and hold great potential for pathogen detection and identification. In this paper, a rational approach to the development and application of nucleic acid signatures is described based on phylogenetically informative sequence features, especially single nucleotide polymorphisms. The computational tools that are available to enable the development of the next generation of microbial molecular signatures for clinical diagnostics and infectious disease surveillance are reviewed and the impact on public health and national security will be discussed.
authors.affiliation: Bioscience Division, MS M888, Los Alamos National Laboratory, NM 87545, USA. ccleland@lanl.gov
authors.forename: Catherine A
authors.initials: CA
authors.lastname: Cleland
authors.forename: P Scott
authors.initials: PS
authors.lastname: White
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Deshpande
authors.forename: Murray
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wolinsky
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Song
authors.forename: John P
authors.initials: JP
authors.lastname: Nolan
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D003141:Communicable Diseases / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics / Q000382:microbiology; D019295:Computational Biology; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D005827:Genetics, Microbial / Q000379:methods*; D023281:Genomics; D006801:Humans; D025202:Molecular Diagnostic Techniques; D009696:Nucleic Acids / Q000032:analysis*; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA / Q000379:methods; D014780:Viruses / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D009696:Nucleic Acids