Basic concepts in Epidemiology Flashcards

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1
Q

Occurrence of a Disease

A

• Incidence and prevelance

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2
Q

Incidence: definition

Incidence rate formula

A

Incidence: Describe the rate of development of a disease
in a group over a period of time.

Nbr of persons dev. a disease x unit time = Incidence rate
Total number at risk

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3
Q

Incidence: examples

A

The incidence of chickenpox in first-grade
children was 10 percent a day at the height
of the epidemic
Chick poxs
- Varicellovirus
Double stranded dna virus

  1. The incidence of myocardial infarction is
    about 1 percent per year in men aged 55
    to 59 in our community
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4
Q

I Prevalence: definition

Prevlance formula

A

Number of persons with a disease
is the most frequently used measure in epidemiology.

For a count to be descriptive of a group, it has to be
considered as proportion of a group.

Prevalence: Describe a group at a certain point in time.

Number of persons with a disease = Prevalence rate
Total number in group

Total # of dieases over number in group will give u rate of prevelance

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5
Q

Prevalence: examples

A

Prevalence of diarrhea in the children’s camp on July 13 was 33 percent

  1. Prevalence of significant hyperbilirubinemia in full-term infants on the third post-partum
    day is 20 percent
  2. Prevalence of electrocardiographic
    abnormalities at our screening examination
    was 5 percent
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6
Q

Morbidity rate: definition

A

Morbidity: incidence of illness (disease) in a population.
It includes both fatal and nonfatal diseases.

Morbidity rate could refer to either prevalence or
incidence.

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7
Q

Morbidity rates: examples

A

Morbidity rate of genital Chlamydia in Canada in 2000
was 32%.

Morbidity rate of giardiasis in Canada in 2000 was 3.4%.

These are the number of new cases for the year 2000.

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8
Q

Mortality rate: definition

formula

A

Mortality: incidence of death in a population.

Nbr of persons dead x unit time = Mortality rate
Total number in group

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9
Q

Mortality rate: examples

A

The mortality rate varied from 25% to 33% of
Europe’s population during plague epidemics
in the Middle Ages.

  1. The mortality rate of HIV/AIDS patients in the
    USA decreased from 15.6 deaths per 100,000
    people in 1995 to 11.6 deaths per 100,000 people
    in 1996.
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10
Q

Case Fatality Ratio

A

Usually in an epidemiological study (often outbreak).
• The number of confirmed cases that died of the diseases.
• It is an estimate on a small sample of the mortality rate of a disease
(estimate because not all cases in outbreak has been reported)

It is usuually for people that have been confirmed based on pcr

Listeria monocytogenes

- Food path 150 cases in canad a
- CFR- 15-30%
- High case F R = leads people to start implementing containment early
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11
Q

Occurrence of a Disease the types

A

Sporadic disease: disease that occurs only occasionally
• Endemic disease: disease constantly present in a population
• Epidemic disease: disease acquired by many people in a given area in
a short time
• Pandemic disease: worldwide epidemic

The notifiable are usually endemic
May change if u have a way of vaccinatingg or treating ie measels

Epidem - usully unstable pop
When that goes global = pandemic

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12
Q

Example of a pandemic

A

Hiv exapmle of pandemic
1979 first cases

Luc montagnier - france
Robert gallo - usa (NIH new your
Isolate dthe virus

92-93 change of case definition gence the spike as the number befroe were probs underreporting

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13
Q

Case Definition of TB

A

A tuberculosis (TB) case is a patient that has been diagnosed as such
by a clinician, regardless if the diagnosis has been confirmed
bacteriologically or not.
• The elements necessary for defining a TB case are: the TB treatment
history, the bacteriological status, the anatomical site of the disease
and the patient’s HIV status.
• Note: any person receiving treatment for TB should be recorded as a
TB case.
• (derives from WHO guidelines)

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14
Q

Acute disease

A

symptoms develop rapidly but the disease lasts only a

short time

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15
Q

Chronic disease

A

: symptoms develop slowly

Cronic- hep c - will have acute phase followe dby cronic infectionn

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16
Q

Subacute disease:

A

: intermediate between acute

and chronic

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17
Q

Latent disease

A

causative agent is inactive for a time but then
activates and produces symptoms

tuverculosis, hep, conjuctivitis caused by herpes
Herpes simplex- the dna of virus will incorperated into dna of host cfell - 1% of people after 50 years will give an infection
Vairacella (chicken pox) - gives shingles in latent state , uaully is a nerve infectin

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18
Q

Herd immunity

A

: immunity in most of a population

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19
Q

Local infection

A

pathogens are limited to a small area of the body

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20
Q

Systemic (generalized) infection

A

an infection throughout the body

exp is strep pyogenes

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21
Q

Focal infection

A

systemic infection that began as a local infection

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22
Q

Sepsis

A

: toxic inflammatory condition arising from the spread of

microbes, especially bacteria or their toxins, from a focus of infection

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23
Q

Bacteremia

A

bacteria in the blood

  • may start by a simple brushing of teeth too hard
    • Does not involve growth of bact
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24
Q

Septicemia

A

also known as blood poisoning; growth of bacteria in the

blood

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25
Q

Toxemia

A

toxins in the blood

diptheria - a single unit, has an a part and b part, b is active part

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26
Q

Viremia

A

viruses in the blood

measles for unvax childrens

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27
Q

Primary infection:

A

acute infection that causes the initial illness

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28
Q

Secondary infection

A

opportunistic infection after a primary
(predisposing) infection
You may have cold or flu and u may have probkem in lungs and may develop bect which is secondary infec

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29
Q

Subclinical disease

A

no noticeable signs or symptoms (inapparent

infection)

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30
Q

Predisposing Factors

A
Gender
• Inherited traits, such as the sickle cell gene
• Climate and weather
• Fatigue
• Age
• Lifestyle
• Nutrition
• Chemotherapy
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31
Q

Inherited- nRAMP

A

Inherited- nRAMP - 1 protien (gene)- associated with succeptability or resisiance
- The polymorphasm of this has been studied - connection to indigenous which makes them more succept to tuberculuosus
Another exampke is ccr5 gene - HIV- plymorphus - variable in dif contries

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32
Q

Incubation period:

A

: interval between initial infection and first signs

and symptoms

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33
Q

Prodromal period

A

short period after incubation; early, mild

symptoms

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34
Q

Period of illness:

A

disease is most severe

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35
Q

Period of decline

A

signs and symptoms subside

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36
Q

Period of convalescence:

A

body returns to its prediseased state

goes back to norma

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37
Q

Reservoirs of Infection

A
Continual sources of infection
Human reservoirs
• Carriers may have inapparent infections or latent diseases
Animal reservoirs
• Zoonoses are diseases transmitted from animals to humans
Nonliving reservoirs
• Soil and water
• Food
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38
Q

Direct contact transmission

A

requires close association between the

infected and a susceptible host

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39
Q

Indirect contact transmission

A

spreads to a host by a nonliving object
called a fomite
Fomite- important for hospital infections

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40
Q

Droplet transmission

A

transmission via airborne droplets less than 1

meter

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41
Q

Vehicle Transmission

A
  • Transmission by an inanimate reservoir
  • Waterborne
  • Foodborne
  • Airborne
42
Q

Vectors

A

Arthropods, especially fleas, ticks, and mosquitoes
• Transmit disease by two general methods
• Mechanical transmission: arthropod carries pathogen on its feet
• Biological transmission: pathogen reproduces in the vector; transmitted via
bites or feces

Fleas- eu espestos
Malaira
Mech- spreads on food by feet

43
Q

Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs)

A

Acquired while receiving treatment in a health care facility
• Also known as nosocomial infections
Affect 1 in 25 hospital patients
• 2 million per year infected; 20,000 deaths

44
Q

HAIs result from

A

Microorganisms in the hospital environment
• Weakened status of the host
• Chain of transmission in a hospital

45
Q

Compromised host

A

an individual whose resistance to infection is

impaired by disease, therapy, or burns

46
Q

Control of Healthcare-Associated Infections

A

Reduce number of pathogens
• Handwashing
• Disinfecting tubs used to bathe patients
• Cleaning instruments scrupulously
• Using disposable bandages and intubation
Infection control committees

47
Q

Emerging Infectious Diseases

A

Diseases that are new, increasing in incidence, or showing a potential
to increase in the near future
• Most are zoonotic, of viral origin, and likely to be vector-borne

48
Q

Emerging Infectious Diseases

• Contributing factors

A

Genetic recombination
• Escherichia coli O157
• avian influenza (H5N1)
Evolution of new strains
• Vibrio cholerae O139
Widespread use of antibiotics and pesticides
• Antibiotic-resistant strains (MRSA, M. tuberculosis XDR)
Changes in weather patterns
• Hantaviru
Hantavirus- associated with rockies and animal pop

49
Q

Mycobacterium tuberculosis AM
resistance
Distinct subpopulations isolated from a
poorly-compliant TB patient

A

If the patient diesnt carry out treatmetn

The boxes are the genes of tb that have undergon mutations that will resist antibiotic

KatG gene- antibi resistance

The mutuations are addiive and they will becoem resistance to many antibiotjcos

Resistance to all antibiotics

50
Q
Emerging Infectious Diseases
Contributing factors (cont'd
A
Modern transportation
   Chikungunya
• West Nile virus
Ecological disaster, war, and expanding human settlement
• Coccidioidomycosis
Animal control measures
• Lyme disease
Public health failure
• Diphtheria

Chikungunya- similar to dengu and zika
West nile- from new york

Barallia burgdorferi- can be transmitted thru a tick and deer pop
- Phylym spirochetes

Public health

  • 1990 crumbling of iron current and soviet unit
    • Vacci ne against dipt goes down and cases went up
51
Q

John Snow

A

1848–1849
Mapped the occurrence of
cholera in London
ould trace it back to water pump and filitering it thru sand column

52
Q

Ignaz Semmelweis

A

1846–1848 Showed that handwashing
decreased the incidence of
peurperal sepsis
baby birthing

53
Q

Florence

Nightingale

A
1858 
Showed that improved
sanitation decreased the
incidence of epidemic
typhus
54
Q

The Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention (CDC)

A

Collects and analyzes epidemiological information in the United
States

Publishes Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR)

55
Q

Morbidity

A

Morbidity: incidence of a specific notifiable disease

56
Q

Mortality

A

Mortality: deaths from notifiable diseases

57
Q

Notifiable infectious diseases

A

diseases in which physicians are required to report occurrence

58
Q

Morbidity rate:

A

number of people affected in relation to the total population in a given time period

59
Q

Mortality rate:

A

number of deaths from a disease in relation to the

population in a given time

60
Q

Patient with a bacteremia during a hospital stay

• Dr. Jackson wants to know the cause of the disease

A
  • Postulate MRSA (methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus)
  • Culture? Phenotypic (longer but well established)
  • Molecular diagnostic? PCR (faster but need to be reliable)
61
Q

mannitol-salt agar

A

selectove medium and differential
- Sodium chloride 75 g/l (7.5%)- selective kind
- D mannatol
- Beef extract
- Phenol red - 6-8pH yellow to red , yellow is indication
○ Measure acid production to distignuish between s. epidermidis (mannitol neg so it stays red) and s. aureus
- Agar
- Proteose peptone

62
Q

Blood cultures grown on mannitol-salt agar

A

coagulase-positive; grampositive cocci

Methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus
• Strain USA100: 92% of health care strains
• Strain USA300: 89% of community-acquired strains

Methicilli n- antibiotic of familt penicilin which blocks cell wall synth

Commun- people that get infected in community - ie live on streets

80% usa 100
Use incidence 0.02-0.04% 20/100,000 and 40/100,000

63
Q

Molecular Biology and Epidemiology

A

I Molecular strain-typing techniques (short term)
II Phenotypic methods (longer term)
III Genotypic methods (diversity of methods)
IV PCR-based methods (diversity of PCR)

64
Q

I Molecular strain-typing techniques

A

There are 4 basic techniques in molecular biology
1. PCR
2. Hybridization
3. Cloning
4. Sequencing
All the different techniques used in molecular
epidemiology are variations of these technique

65
Q

PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction)

A
Pcr - dna polynerase
Thermostable 
90 degrees celcius - thermus aquatus
Frist isolated by t d brork from yellowstoen hotspring 
	- Primers oligonucleotied - around 20 nuc tide long single straned. A froward and reverse. One primer forwaed 5'-3', reverse: 3'-5'
	- Need magnesium chloride as you have to modify [] of this to optimize pcr
	- You need target dna
	- You need a positive and neg control 
	- Thermocycler
		○ 3 cycle 
		○ 1> denaturin g 94 degress c 
		2. Anneling 50-65 allowas for binding
		3. Extention primer 72 
	- Then cycle starts again 
- The promers may be targetinh very conserved areas. 
- Gives flexibility to look at specific group of bacteria
66
Q

Hybridization

A

Hybirdization

- S aureus 
- Colonies on plate 
- We want to know if they vancomycin resistance
- We look at van A gene 
- Use nylon membrane
- You trat it so it crosslink s
- Then u  treat with piece of fna you hyberdize it and was it
- If it has van a it will light up due to fluoreces and thise will be van a positive 

Good way to screen several coloneis quicly and identify genotypes quicly

67
Q

Cloning

A

Plasmid
Naturally occuring in bact
Make specific genes that are benificail
Involve dedgreation of compound or

Name comes from
Forst letter is genus
Have amp resistacne gene that doesn’t have a cloning site and will be used to eliminate bact

Can construct a plasmid with an insert

You want to identify bact with plasmid and insert
You will replace with ampicillin and amp + tetracyclin
No plasmid no growth
Cant have a plasmid with and without insert

Have lacz gene that can convert xgal to blue
White because thye cant convert x gal
Blue colony doesn’t have insert
By selecting white u know it has insert

68
Q

High Throughput Sequencing

A

2 protiens added thu pore
The topoisomeras will unwind dna which will goto porin
By moving across membrane

The overlap of those sequences will give u the resolution

69
Q

High Througput Sequencing

Several methods with different chemical principl

A

1: Nanopore sequencing
2. Pyrosequencing (454)
3. Sequencing by synthesis (Illumina: Miseq and High seq)

70
Q

Pyrosequencing (454)

A
  • 100bp dna
    • Pcr in thousands wells
    • 2nd pcr + DNA polymerase, Attp sulfurlase, luciferin , ATS->ATP
      Detect light emitted
71
Q

Sequencing by synthesis (Illumina: Miseq and High seq)

A
  • 200-600 bp dna
    • Dna + ardaptors small clusterrs
    • Dna polymerase + dNTP terminal tors
      laser
72
Q

Epidemiologic problems addressed by

molecular strain-typing

A

Dynamics of disease transmission
•Risk determination in sporadic occurrence of
disease
•Stratifying data and refining study designs
•Distinguishing pathovars and nonpathovars
•Addressing nosocomial infections
•Identifying genetic determinants of disease
transmission

73
Q

Application to epidemiology of molecular straintyping methods

A

When to use molecular strain-typing methods?
•How to select molecular strain-typing methods?
•Validating new molecular strain-typing methods
- Validation was a problem with covid 19 as it was genrating a lot of false pos.

74
Q

•Simplicity:

A

•Molecular techniques may be simpler to execute and
simpler to train people to use (E. coli study in Brazil took
only 1 month to complete compared to 6 months with
classical methods)

75
Q

High throughput:

A

•Capacity of a test to process a large number of specimens
simultaneously (especially important for power of stat tests)
•In Brazil study, only 5 -7 isolates per child could be
analyzed by classical methods, while isolates were pooled
using PCR methods allowing a greater number of isolates to
be analyzed.

76
Q

Cost

A

Widespread use of molecular biology reagents have
reduced costs in developing countries. PCR tests have all
the same reagents except for primers.

77
Q

Appropriateness

A

•The capacity of a test to address epidemiologic problems
not possible to address by conventional methods.
•If conventional test can be use and there is no disadvantage
to use it, then there is no need to use a molecular technique.
Ex. An unusual drug resistance pattern in Salmonella could
preclude the use of molecular strain-typing.
•But often DNA sequences allow unambiguous
identification of new infectious agents and evolution of
these agents. Ex. Identification of HIV as AIDS infectious
agents, SARS

78
Q

How to select strain typing methods?

A
  • Typeability: ability of a technique to generate an unambiguous result
    for an isolate tested.
    •Reproducibility: ability of a test to produce identical results when a
    strain is tested repeatedly.
    •Ease of interpretation: information derived from molecular
    techniques has to serve as stratum in epidemiological study.
    •Ease of use: (same as simplicity).
    •Stability: the character use for molecular typing is not subject to rapid
    evolution or lost from host.
    •Epidemiologic concordance: molecular typing has to effectively
    group outbreak-related strains.
    •Typing system concordance: molecular typing compares
    favorably with a previously validated test.
79
Q

•Validity

A

.. of a test is its ability to correctly
predict or identify those who truly have the
characteristics the test is trying to detect , and
exclude those who do not have the characteristic
•Validating methods for pathogens causing
disease recognized to occur as outbreak
•Validating methods for pathogens causing
disease NOT recognized to occur as outbreak

80
Q

II Phenotypic strain-typing

A

Typing by growth and morphologic
characteristics
•Typing based on biochemical characteristics
•Typing by functional or physiologic
characteristics
•Typing by serologic characteristics (serovars)
Serovars= same bacterium biut will react dif to dif antibodies

81
Q

Typing by growth and morphologic characteristics

A

•Gram or acid fast stain (Mycobacterium tuberculosis)
•Color, shape of
colonies on agar plates (S. aureus on VogelJohnson agar are black
colonies surrounded
by a cleared yellow
zone)

82
Q

Typing based on biochemical characteristics

A

•Targeting an enzyme associated with disease.
Lactose-fermenting E. coli cause diarrhea.
Targeting lactose fermentation for detection of
infectious agent.
• Mannitol fermentation for Staphyloccocus aureus

Like mannitol salt medium for s. auresu
This is vogal jhonson agar vja-

Vja- tryptone, yeast extract , mannitol, K2PO4,Li CL , glycine, phenol red + tellurite

- Mannitol and phenol red are for same reason as msa
- Sekective part is - LiCL
- Differental is manitol and ohenol 
- Tellurite- reduced to tellurium whoch will give black colour to staph areus
83
Q

•Toxigenicity bioassays

A

Shiga-like toxins or verotoxins E. coli can be identify
by their cytotoxic effects on Vero cells (African Green
Monkey kidney cells)
•Toxin-producing Clostridium difficile cause cytopathic
effects on fibroblast cell monolayers
•Diphtheriae toxin in C. diphtheriae

84
Q

•Survival characteristics (in vitro or in vivo)

A

•Based on susceptibility to stress conditions

85
Q

•Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MLEE)

A

•Based on metabolic enzymes that are highly conserved
and that may reflect differences visualized by migration
of enzymes in a starch gel

86
Q

•Antimicrobial susceptibility

A

•Betalactamase (Ampicillin), rifampin, etc.

87
Q

•Phage typing

A

•Susceptibility to phage lysis (eg. phages PT2, PT8)

88
Q

•Colicin (bacteriocin) typing

A

•Based on susceptibility to bacteriocins: short

peptide that inhibit other bacteria

89
Q

•Cell culture assays

A

Enteropathogenic E. coli can be differentiated from

other E. coli by their ability to attach to HeLa cells

90
Q

Typing by serological characteristics

A

Based on differences in antigenic determinants of
infectious agent
•E. coli can be subtype by O polysaccharide and
further subtype by flagellar protein H
•Hamburger disease (E. coli O157:H7)
•Influenza virus is typed by H and N antigenic
proteins (H5N1)

91
Q

Typing by functional or physiologic characteristics

A
Colicin (bacteriocin)
typing
•Based on
susceptibility to
bacteriocins: short
peptide that inhibit
other bacteria
92
Q

Typing by ELISA

A

Enzyme Linked
Immuno-Sorbent
Assay

93
Q

Typing by Western (Immuno-) Blot

A

Southern- used it for dna - that goes on agarose gel - to DNA target on membrane
RNA- northern

When dealinf with protein its western
Smaller protien. Moves faster thru gel
Gel cant be hyberdizes
You need to transfer protein gel to membrane
Now you can use antibody that will bind to protein that is targeted
Can use iodine

Is a non radioactive reaction
If protein is there you will see coloured spot

94
Q

III Genotypic strain-typing

A
  • Nucleic acid extraction
  • Analysis of extrachromosomal DNA elements
  • Genome-based typing methods
  • Restriction endonuclease analysis
  • Southern blot hybridization
  • Pulse-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE)
  • Whole genome sequence comparison
  • Microarray comparisons
95
Q

Nucleic acid extraction

A

You need a mechanical disruption
To smash cell wall and cell membrane
Then you have number of enzyme or treatment you put in you rreaction

96
Q

Gel Electrophoresis of Restricted Fragments

A

You have an elec current
The smaller the fragment, the faster it moves
Whats important-
- Current
- Gram ov agarose/desnity of gell
- If you increase [] of agarose to 1,1.5 gel which is great to separate small markers
- Then you run sample
- The size of the fragment is a good measure of what was amplified
- Your not sure if the sequenve you amplified is the same sequence your targeting so you habe to probe it

97
Q

Southern Blot of Digested DNA

A

You probe membrane with labeled dna prob with southern blot
You want to see if patient shares same micobacterium tb.
For micobact tb a common probe is is6110
Then you can map who has transmitted the disease
If yuou have 4 people with same pattern, u can assume tjhat its been transmitted betweene people.

98
Q

Pulse-Field Gel Electrophoresis

A

Reslove small fragments less than 5000bp
To resolve large fragment swe go from signal current vegctor to currents generated by multiple angles and then u c an use larger pieces of dna

99
Q

Microarray comparisons

A

Allows for identification of single pelace of dna in a sample
You can use dna to screen specific genes in a microbiome
You would grow bact under 2 dif contitions
Reverse of hybirdization where you add probe on slide and then add sanple

100
Q

IV PCR-based strain-typing

A
•Critical in the use of PCR for diagnostic is the
development of PCR primer sets
•Use of
- Sequence database
- Software to test primers
•PCR target may be:
•1) coding region: gene
•2) non-coding region:repetitive
elements

When u select 18-25bp primer it might bind to non specific bands
Target 16s rna could be other genes as well
Patthogens use henes involved in replicating genes ie housekeeping genes
Some regions become conserved
The non cofing region gene that is not coding and not under selective pressure, basis of ips used by fungi