title: Respiratory Tularemia:Francisella Tularensisand Microarray Probe Designing.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Francisella tularensis(F. tularensis) is the etiological microorganism for tularemia. There are different forms of tularemia such as respiratory tularemia. Respiratory tularemia is the most severe form of tularemia with a high rate of mortality; if not treated. Therefore, traditional microbiological tools and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) are not useful for a rapid, reliable, accurate, sensitive and specific diagnosis. But, DNA microarray technology does. DNA microarray technology needs to appropriate microarray probe designing.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  The main goal of this original article was to design suitable long oligo microarray probes for detection and identification ofF. tularensis.
  
  
  METHODS
  For performing this research, the complete genomes ofF. tularensissubsp.tularensisFSC198,F. tularensissubsp.holarcticaLVS,F. tularensissubsp.mediasiatica,F. tularensissubsp.novicida(F. novicidaU112), andF. philomiragiasubsp.philomiragiaATCC 25017 were studiedviaNCBI BLAST tool, GView and PanSeq Servers and finally the microarray probes were produced and processedviaAlleleID 7.7 software and Oligoanalyzer tool, respectively.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In thisin silicoinvestigation, a number of long oligo microarray probes were designed for detecting and identifyingF. tularensis. Among these probes, 15 probes were recognized as the best candidates for microarray chip designing.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Calibrated microarray probes reduce the biasis of DNA microarray technology as an advanced, rapid, accurate and cost-effective molecular diagnostic tool with high specificity and sensitivity. Professional microarray probe designing provides us with much more facility and flexibility regarding preparation of a microarray diagnostic chip.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Biology Research Center, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Reza
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Ranjbar
authors.affiliation: Department of Microbiology, College of Basic Sciences, Shahr-e-Qods Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.
authors.forename: Payam
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Behzadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Sciences for Health Promotion and Mother-Child Care 'G. D'Alessandro, University of Palermo, Palermo, Italy.
authors.forename: Caterina
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Mammina
keywords: Bioinformatics; DNA microarray; Dry lab; Francisella tularensis; Probe designing; Tularemia