Culture-Independent Analysis of Mixed Microbial Communities - Clinical Applications

The capacity to separate mixed, consensus PCR amplicons by TMFA have been demonstrated by Domann et al. ¹ in the context of analyses of polymicrobial infections in the genitourinary tract of renal transplant recipients.

The experiments performed involved amplification of a hypervariable element of bacterial 16S rRNA genes by consensus PCR.

The authors concluded:

"The method described is reproducible and rapidly and enables both DHPLC-based profiling and sequence-based investigation of microbial communities and polymicrobial infections...
The approach reported here can be used to establish a specialized database of bacterial pathogens and to detect bacteria by the combination of distinct retention profiles of amplicons without sequencing. It is easy to envisage the use of this technique to elucidate viral, fungal and parasitic pathogens in clinical settings."

References

1. Domann, E., G. Hong, C. Imirzalioglu, S. Turschner, J. Kühle, C. Watzel, T. Hain, H. Hossain and T. Chakraborty. Culture-independent identification of pathogenic bacteria and polymicrobial infections in the genitourinary tract of renal transplant recipients. J. Clin. Microbiol. 2003, 41(12), 5500-5510. Abstract Library Entry