Applied Molecular Genetics: New Tools for Microbiologists and Clinicians

Pertussis: the disease and new diagnostic methods

“…This agar was further developed and modified by Jones and Kendrick (76) by the addition of penicillin. Sutcliff and Abbott developed a medium similar to Jones-Kendrick agar which contained 10% horse blood and 40 ,ug of cephalexin per ml (148). Cephalexin seems more selective for B. pertussis and has a wider spectrum of action than penicillin (146,148).…”

“…The development of recombinant DNA technology over the last several years has lead to the use of DNA probes for diagnosis of infectious diseases (40,151 were positive with the DNA probe and also by culture (153). DNA probes for detection of other bacterial pathogens have VOL.…”

“…DNA probes for detection of other bacterial pathogens have VOL. 1,1988 also been developed (40). Techniques have also been developed to label DNA with biotin so that bound probe may be detected colorimetrically and not by use of radioisotopes, making DNA probes more practical for the clinical laboratory (87).…”

Pathogenesis and diagnosis of bacterial diarrhea

“…These methods are usually based on understanding of the mechanisms involved, such as toxin production and genetic control ( Table 2), and represent an exciting development in applied molecular genetics (5,6). Adding to this is the growing list of etiologies of diarrheal disease, which makes indiscriminate attempts of etiologic determination very expensive and of low yield.…”

Oligonucleotide Probes Complementary to Variable Regions of Ribosomal RNA Discriminate between Mycoplasma Species

“…An additional application includes the concept of taxonomic 'finger printing' of hitherto unknown or unclassified bacterial species using a set of different oligonucleotides. (2) The high number of rRNA target molecules results in a sensitivity at least 100 times greater than that of bacterial DNA targets (Falkow, 1985;Tompkins et al, 1985;Eisenstein & Engleberg, 1986). (3) The use of short probes substantially reduces hybridization times and allows exact prediction of the hybridization conditions (Conner et al, 1983).…”