Profiling Mycobacterium ulcerans with hsp65

Phenotypic and genetic characterization of a novel Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato isolate from a patient with Lyme borreliosis. al. A14S—a new Borrelia burgdorferi s.l. genospecies as relevant cause of human disease [abstract]. Distribution of clinically relevant Borrelia genospecies in ticks assessed by a novel, single-run real-time PCR.polymerase chain reaction/restriction fragment length polymorphism–based method for sensitive detection and reliable differentiation of all European Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato species and OspA types. Fish D. Genetic variability within Borrelia burgdorferi sensu lato genospecies established by PCR-single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis of the rrfA-rrlB intergenic spacer in Ixodes ricinus ticks Matuschka FR. Relationships of a novel Lyme disease spirochete, Borrelia spiel-mani sp. nov., with its hosts in central Europe. al. Simultaneous presence of different Borrelia burgdorferi genospecies in biological fluids of Lyme-disease patients. Profiling Mycobacterium ulcerans with hsp65 To the Editor: Mycobacterium ulcerans is an emerging human pathogen responsible for Buruli ulcer, a necrotizing skin disease most commonly found in West Africa, but outbreaks have also been reported in the Americas, Australia, and Asia (1). Environmental sources of infection and mode of transmission are not completely known. M. ulcerans grows slowly at 32°C, requiring 6–8 weeks for colonies to be visible in primary culture. Differentiation from M. marinum, which also causes skin infections, is important, since M. mar-inum can usually be treated with antimicrobial agents, whereas M. ulcerans most often does not respond favorably to drug therapy, and treatment is usually by surgical excision (2). M. shinshuense, initially isolated from a child in Japan, is phenotypical-ly and genetically related but biochemically distinct from M. ulcerans (3). In the last decade, several DNA-based techniques for mycobacterial identification have been developed. Rapid molecular detection and differentiation of organisms that cause skin infections directly from tissue or exu-dates could be of great value for early treatment. Some techniques, especially those that include nucleic acid amplification, could be used directly on clinical samples. The accepted standard for molecular identification of mycobacteria is sequencing analysis of 2 hypervariable regions identified in 16S rRNA gene. M. marinum and M. ulcerans share identical 5′-16S rDNA and 16S-23S rRNA gene spacer sequences (4). Polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-dependent methods are based on the 16S rRNA gene (5), the hsp65 gene (6) or the insertion sequence IS2404 (7). Recently, a novel category of variable number tandem repeats that could distinguish M. marinum and M. ulcerans genotypes has been described (8). Polymorphisms in the 3′-16S rDNA …