IS1245 restriction fragment length polymorphism typing of Mycobacterium avium isolates: proposal for standardization

VAN SOOLINGEN DICK; BAUER JEANETT; RITACCO VIVIANA; CARDOSO LEAO SYLVIA; PAVLIK IVO; VINCENT VERONIQUE; RASTOGI NALIN; GORI ANDREA; BODMER THOMAS; GARZELLI CARLOS; GARCIA MARIA JESUS

JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY

AMER SOC MICROBIOLOGY

Año: 1998 vol. 36 p. 3051 - 3054

0095-1137

Mycobacterium avium has become a major human pathogen, primarily due to the emergence of the AIDS epidemic. Restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) typing, using insertion sequence IS1245 as a probe, provides a powerful tool in the molecular epidemiology of M. avium-related infections and will facilitate well-founded studies into the sources of M. avium infections in animal and environmental reservoirs. The standardization of this technique allows computerization of IS1245 RFLP patterns for comparison on a local level and the establishment of M. avium DNA fingerprint databases for interlaboratory comparison. Moreover, by combining international DNA typing results of M. avium complex isolates from a broad spectrum of sources, long-lasting questions on the epidemiology of this major agent of mycobacterial infections will be answered.