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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, November 2009, p. 3640-3646, Vol. 47, No. 11
0095-1137/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00760-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Lack of Insertional-Deletional Polymorphism in a Collection of Mycobacterium ulcerans Isolates from Ghanaian Buruli Ulcer Patients{triangledown}

Michael Käser,1* Oliver Gutmann,2 Julia Hauser,1 Tim Stinear,3 Stewart Cole,4 Dorothy Yeboah-Manu,5 Gregor Dernick,2 Ulrich Certa,2 and Gerd Pluschke1

Swiss Tropical Institute, Molecular Immunology, Socinstrasse 57, 4002 Basel, Switzerland,1 F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd., Basel, Switzerland,2 Department of Microbiology, Monash University, Wellington Road, Clayton 3800, Australia,3 Global Health Institute, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, EPFL SV/GHI/UPCOL, Station number 19, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland,4 Noguchi Memorial Institute for Medical Research, Legon, Ghana5

Received 15 April 2009/ Returned for modification 19 June 2009/ Accepted 23 August 2009

Mycobacterium ulcerans causes the devastating infectious skin disease Buruli ulcer and has a monomorphic population structure. The resolution of conventional genetic fingerprinting methods is therefore not sufficient for microepidemiological studies aiming to characterize transmission pathways. In a previous comparative genomic hybridization analysis with a microarray covering part of the M. ulcerans genome, we have found extensive insertional-deletional sequence polymorphisms among M. ulcerans isolates of diverse geographic origins that allowed us to distinguish between strains coming from different continents. Since large numbers of insertion sequences are spread over the genome of African M. ulcerans strains, we reasoned that these may drive large sequence polymorphisms in otherwise clonal local mycobacterial populations. In this study, we used a printed DNA microarray covering the whole genome of the Ghanaian M. ulcerans reference strain Agy99 for comparative genomic hybridization. The assay identified multiple regions of difference when DNA of a Japanese M. ulcerans strain was analyzed. In contrast, not a single insertional-deletional genomic variation was found within a panel of disease isolates coming from an area of Ghana where Buruli ulcer is endemic. These results indicate that, despite the expectations deduced from other mycobacterial pathogens, only analyses of single nucleotide polymorphisms will have the potential to differentiate local populations of M. ulcerans.

* Corresponding author. Present address: Ghanaian-German Centre for Health Research, University of Ghana, School of Public Health, P.O. Box LG 13, Legon, Accra, Ghana. Phone: 233 277291546. Fax: 41 61 2848 101. E-mail: m.kaeser{at}unibas.ch

{triangledown} Published ahead of print on 2 September 2009.

Journal of Clinical Microbiology, November 2009, p. 3640-3646, Vol. 47, No. 11
0095-1137/09/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/JCM.00760-09
Copyright © 2009, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



This article has been cited by other articles:

  • Kaser, M., Hauser, J., Pluschke, G. (2009). Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms on the Road to Strain Differentiation in Mycobacterium ulcerans. J. Clin. Microbiol. 47: 3647-3652 [Abstract] [Full Text]  


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