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MLVA genotyping

par Christine Pourcel - 6 août 2007

Welcome to this site dedicated to the genotyping of bacterial species infecting cystic fibrosis patients, based on tandem repeats polymorphism. Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus are the major cause of chronic infections in cystic fibrosis patients. These bacteria are environmental. Other species are responsible for infections, including Burkholderia cenocepacia.

MLVA, for Multiple Loci VNTR Analysis, consists in the production of a fingerprint in the form of a code, corresponding to the number of repetitions at each selected VNTR. The codes are used to produce a phylogenetic tree, and to evaluate the degree of similarity between strains.

The analysis of a large number of bacterial isolates will help in the identification of reservoirs for particularly pathogenic strains. In the case of chronic infections it will indicate whether a patient is sequentially infected with different strains during the course of the disease, or if a single lineage is evolving. A database of bacterial fingerprints is being developed at http://mlva.u-psud.fr.

Through the identification of P. aeruginosa and S. aureus lineages most frequently involved in chronic infection in cystic fibrosis patients, it is hoped that their eventual interactions will be clarified in order to better fight or prevent their existence.

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