title: An AFLP-based database of Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei isolates and its use for the identification of untypable Shigella strains.
abstract: Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) can be used to assess the genetic diversity of closely related microbial genomes. In this study, the first of its kind for identification of Shigella, the high discriminatory power of AFLP has been used to determine the genetic relatedness of 230 isolates of Shigella flexneri and Shigella sonnei strains. An AFLP database was generated to demonstrate its utility in the discrimination of closely related strains. Based on AFLP, S. flexneri strains could be grouped into separate clusters according to their serotypes. Within each serotype, strains demonstrated 80-100% similarity indicating that identical strains and closely related strains could be distinguished by this technique. S. flexneri 6 formed a distinct cluster with 55% similarity to the rest of the S. flexneri strains showing significant divergence from the rest of the S. flexneri strains. Significantly, S. sonnei isolates formed a distinct group and showed approximately the same level of genetic linkage to S. flexneri as Escherichia coli strains. Untypable isolates that showed conflicting agglutination reactions with conventional typing sera were identifiable by AFLP. Thus AFLP can be used for genetic fingerprinting of Shigella strains and aid in the identification of variant untypable isolates.
authors.affiliation: Department of Enteric Diseases, Armed Forces Research Institute of Medical Science, Bangkok, Thailand.
authors.forename: Thanatcha
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Sirisriro
authors.forename: Orntipa
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Sethabutr
authors.forename: Carl
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mason
authors.forename: Kaisar A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Talukder
authors.forename: Malabi M
authors.initials: MM
authors.lastname: Venkatesan
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D019992:Databases as Topic; D005838:Genotype; D021141:Nucleic Acid Amplification Techniques / Q000379:methods*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012703:Serotyping; D012763:Shigella flexneri / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D012764:Shigella sonnei / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*