Udo Reischl

Institute of Medical Microbiology and Hygiene, University of Regensburg, Franz-Josef-Strauß-Allee 11, 93053 Regensburg, Germany

Received 06/18/96; Accepted 07/19/96; On-line 08/01/96

Apart from the high-sensitive detection of bacterial pathogens, amplified DNA segments can be used for a variety of purposes. The number and position of repetitive DNA elements present in the genome of M. tuberculosis, for example, are representing strain-specific markers and the information has been used in epidemiologic studies of tuberculosis (17, 18, 19).

Epidemiologic studies are an important component of disease surveillance in defining the origin and spread of tuberculosis in the community, which can facilitate effective disease prevention and control measures. Bacterial strains can be either identified or fingerprinted by growing the microorganisms, extracting the genomic DNA, digesting the DNA with restriction enzymes, blotting and then probing the blot for the particular repetitive element (17). The resulting fingerprint patterns are also highly valuable markers for providing important insights into the global transmission, identification of strains with particular properties, such as high infectivity, high virulence, multi-drug resistantance, and in answering questions of a reactivation versus a reinfection of the disease (18, 19).