Winstanley Craig
Department of Medical Microbiology and Genito-Urinary Medicine, University of Liverpool, Duncan Building, Daulby Street, Liverpool L69 3GA, UK.
J Med Microbiol. 2002 Jun;51(6):459-467. doi: 10.1099/0022-1317-51-6-459.
Comparison of DNA from virulent strains of bacterial pathogens with DNA from less virulent or avirulent close relatives allows the identification of those genomic regions that are present only in virulent strains. Such regions are often associated with pathogenicity islands (PIs) and their characterisation can lead to a greater understanding of the pathogenesis of infectious diseases. There is now a large database of bacterial genomic sequences that provides useful reference information with which to compare the genomes of strains that exhibit variations in virulence or host preferences. Subtractive hybridisation (SH) and its sister method, suppression subtractive hybridisation (SSH), are techniques designed to identify those regions present in one genome but absent from another. The application of these techniques has led to the identification of PIs, mobile genetic elements and variations in virulence gene expression in a range of bacterial pathogens.
将细菌病原体致病菌株的DNA与致病性较低或无致病性的近缘亲属的DNA进行比较，能够鉴定出那些仅存在于致病菌株中的基因组区域。这些区域通常与致病岛（PI）相关，对其进行表征有助于更深入地了解传染病的发病机制。目前有一个庞大的细菌基因组序列数据库，可提供有用的参考信息，用于比较毒力或宿主偏好存在差异的菌株的基因组。消减杂交（SH）及其姊妹方法抑制消减杂交（SSH）是旨在鉴定一个基因组中存在而另一个基因组中不存在的区域的技术。这些技术的应用已导致在一系列细菌病原体中鉴定出致病岛、移动遗传元件和毒力基因表达的变化。
