Highly discriminatory typing method for Listeria monocytogenes using polymorphic tandem repeat regions.
Tandem repeats (TR), which are repetitive nucleotide sequences in DNA, are polymorphic both in repeat number and sequence. In this study, we developed a new typing method, multilocus TR sequence analysis (MLTSA), for the foodborne pathogen Listeria monocytogenes using sequence polymorphisms in three tandem repeat regions. The obtained dendrogram clustered L. monocytogenes strains of lineage I and lineage II separately, and formed three groups within the lineage I cluster, each of which included one of the three major L. monocytogenes epidemic clones (ECI, ECIa, and ECII). These results were consistent with a previously established virulence-gene-based MLST method. In comparison, our method grouped some epidemiologically related isolates together, which virulence-gene-based MLST did not. Moreover, our method, using three tandem repeat regions, showed a higher discriminatory power than the MLST method, which uses six virulence gene regions. This MLTSA approach using sequence polymorphisms in TR regions could be a useful tool in the epidemiological study of L. monocytogenes.
Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Marine Science, Tokyo University of Marine Science and Technology, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan.
Satoko
S
Miya
Hajime
H
Takahashi
Chikako
C
Kamimura
Miku
M
Nakagawa
Takashi
T
Kuda
Bon
B
Kimura
D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D008089:Listeria monocytogenes / Q000235:genetics*; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D010802:Phylogeny; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences; D037521:Virulence Factors / Q000235:genetics
D037521:Virulence Factors