Background & Aims: Bordetella pertussis, the causative agent of whooping cough, continues to infect human hosts even in those populations where infants and children are routinely vaccinated. Causes of pertussis epidemiology are not fully identified unless strains of the pathogen are characterized by molecular means. Golbally, Multi Locus Variable Number of Tandem Repeats analysis (MLVA) has pro...

Variable tandem repeats are frequently used for genetic mapping, genotyping, and forensics studies. Moreover, variation in some repeats underlies rapidly evolving traits or certain diseases. However, mutation rates vary greatly from repeat to repeat, and as a consequence, not all tandem repeats are suitable genetic markers or interesting unstable genetic modules. We developed a model, "SERV," t...

The PER3 gene is one of the clock genes, which function in the core mammalian molecular circadian system. A variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) locus in the 18th exon of this gene has been strongly associated to circadian rhythm phenotypes and sleep organization in humans, but it has not been identified in other mammals except primates. To better understand the evolution and the placement ...

Random amplified polymorphism DNA (RAPD) is an easy, inexpensive technique for the characterization of pathogens in low-income countries. In this study we used RAPD to assess the genetic diversity of a small collection of isolates of mycobacteria from the Mexican state of Michoacan. In contrast with the low annual tuberculosis incidence in Michoacan relative to the national average, we found a ...

BACKGROUND We estimate the proportion of tuberculosis (TB) in England due to recent household transmission, identify factors associated with being a household transmitter, and investigate the impact that identification of a case has on time to treatment of subsequent cases. METHODS TB cases notified between 2010 and 2012 in England in the same household as another case were identified; 24 loc...

Tuberculosis incidence among aborigines is significantly higher than for Han Chinese in Taiwan, but the extent to which Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) strain characteristics contribute to this difference is not well understood. MTB isolates from aborigines and Han Chinese living in eastern and southern Taiwan, the major regions of aborigines, were analyzed by spoligotyping and 24-loci MIRU-VN...

Fifty-two multidrug-resistant isolates of Mycobacterium tuberculosis representative of the currently predominant lineages in France were analyzed using repetitive-sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) DiversiLab (DL), spoligotyping, 24-locus mycobacterial interspersed repetitive-unit-variable-number tandem-repeat typing (MIRU-VNTR), and restriction fragment length polymorphism of IS6110 (IS6110-RFLP). D...

BACKGROUND The national tuberculosis strain typing service (TB-STS) was introduced in England in 2010. The TB-STS involves MIRU-VNTR typing of isolates from all TB patients for the prospective identification, reporting and investigation of TB strain typing clusters. As part of a mixed-method evaluation, we report on a repeated cross-sectional survey to illustrate the challenges surrounding the ...