Nicotine addiction, related to cigarette smoking, develops as a product of the complex interactions between social, environmental and genetic factors. Genes encoding the components of the dopaminergic system are thought to be associated with smoking. Literature data showed not only an association, but also a lack of association between variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism locat...

In this study we report on the development of a multilocus variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) method for the molecular typing of Mycoplasma pneumoniae. The genomic content of M. pneumoniae M129 was analyzed for VNTRs, and 5 of the 17 VNTRs identified were selected for use in an MLVA assay. The method was based on a GeneScan analysis of VNTR loci labeled with fluorescent dyes b...

Multiple-locus variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) has been proposed as a means of strain typing for tracking the transmission of leprosy. However, empirical data for a defined population are lacking. To this end, a study was initiated to assess the diversity and distribution of prevalent Mycobacterium leprae strains in Qiubei County, Yunnan Province, People's Republic of China...

he predisposition to type 2 diabetes is programmed early in life and genotypes promoting survival during nutritional adversity could increase the risk of type 2 diabetes. The insulin gene and variation in the insulin gene variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) polymorphism has been suggested to modify birth size and diabetes susceptibility. Materials and Methods: We assessed the association b...

We analyzed a set of variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) loci to assess their nucleotide sequence diversity in isolates of three Mycobacterium ulcerans genotypes. Sequence variants in two loci resulted in intraspecies resolution of Southeast Asian and Asian genotypes in contrast to a homogenous sequence composition among African isolates. Nucleotide sequence polymorphism in repeat units can en...

Compared with solid media, broth-based mycobacterial culture systems have increased sensitivity but also have higher false-positive rates due to cross-contamination. Systematic strain typing is rarely undertaken because the techniques are technically demanding and the data are difficult to organize. Variable number tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis by PCR is rapid and reproducible. The digital prof...

Variable numbers of tandem repeats (VNTR) typing is widely used for studying the bacterial cause of tuberculosis. Knowledge of the rate of mutation of VNTR loci facilitates the study of the evolution and epidemiology of Mycobacterium tuberculosis. Previous studies have applied population genetic models to estimate the mutation rate, leading to estimates varying widely from around 10⁻⁵ to 10⁻² p...

Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium is the most common Salmonella serovar causing human infections in Australia and many other countries. A total of 12,112 S. Typhimurium isolates from New South Wales were analyzed by multi-locus variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) analysis (MLVA) using five VNTRs from 2007 to 2014. We found that mid ranges of repeat units of 8-14 in VNTR locus STTR5, 6...

The variable number of tandem repeat (VNTR) of thymidylate synthase (TS) gene, mainly 2 repeat (2R) and 3 repeat (3R), is one of the genetic variations that can potentially predict the effectiveness of 5-fluorouracilbased chemotherapy. In this study we identified an additional single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the VNTR of TS, followed by functional and clinical analysis of the SNP. Two-hu...

Several methods are available for the molecular typing of Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex isolates. The results of the recent research demonstrated that Mycobacterial Interspersed Repetitive Unit (MIRU)-Variable Number Tandem Repeats (VNTR) method has high discriminatory power and reproducibility, is easy to perform, and available for multi-center studies and automation. However, there is in...