Food and patient isolates from an Escherichia coli O157:H7 outbreak associated with undercooked ground beef were characterized by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and Shiga-like toxin genotype. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis confirmed the epidemiologically implicated source of the two-state outbreak and differentiated between outbreak and sporadic strains.

abstract background: methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (mrsa) is a significant challenge to the burn patient. the implementation of proper monitoring programs and prompt identification of epidemic mrsa strains are critical to consequently control and eradicate potential outbreaks. this study aimed to define the genetic relatedness of mrsa strains isolated from burn patients by analyzi...

The mobilities of oligomers of phage lambda DNA and of yeast chromosomes in agarose gels during field inversion gel electrophoresis (FIGE) were measured at different pulse times and electric fields. Also the ratios between forward and backward pulse times and/or field gradients were varied. The problem of 'band inversion' during FIGE, leading to an ambiguity in the mobility of large DNA fragmen...

An outbreak of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus infections at the University of Utah Health Sciences Center occurred over a 7-month period. While the isolates phenotypically appeared to be similar in gross morphology and have similar Vitek antibiotic susceptibility patterns, two additional methods of strain characterization were evaluated to enhance the epidemiological investigation:...

A versatile system (PHOGE) has been developed that allows resolution of molecules of DNA megabase pair size by the use of homogeneous, orthogonal, pulsed fields. The resulting electrophoretograms have characteristics that differ from those produced by other systems for pulsed field electrophoresis. Molecules in a two-fold range of sizes can be separated with maximum resolution, or a much larger...

Mobility of supercoiled (form I) and nicked circular (form II) plasmid DNAs was determined on two major forms of pulsed-field electrophoresis, CHEF and OFAGE. Plasmids with molecular lengths ranging from 2.30 to 17.8 kilobase pairs (kb) were used with Saccharomyces cerevisiae chromosomes as standards. Agarose gel concentrations were varied from 0.3 to 2.0 percent, with higher percentage gels re...

To detect Salmonella clusters, public health laboratories perform pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) that provides a PFGE pattern, or DNA fingerprint. If the PFGE patterns of isolates from >2 persons are indistinguishable, the responsible bacteria may be related to a common source (1–3). PulseNet is a network of public health laboratories coordinated by the Centers for Disease Control and ...