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Molecular Typing Techniques: State of the Art

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Advanced Techniques in Diagnostic Microbiology

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Abstract

The epidemiological analysis of healthcare-associated infections has seen remarkable progress in molecular approaches to bacterial strain typing. These advances stimulate understandable interest in the availability and use of the most sensitive and discriminating strain typing methods – the state of the art. Recent advances in strain typing employing whole-genome sequencing clearly constitute the latest “scientific” state of the art. However, there may be instances where older molecular approaches constitute a “functional” state of the art depending on available expertise and economic resources. This review considers a range of molecular strain typing methods, beginning with the older approaches that may still find useful application while acknowledging both the promise and the challenges associated with whole-genome sequence analysis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology, Creighton University School of Medicine, Omaha, NE, USA

    Richard V. Goering

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  1. Richard V. Goering
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Correspondence to Richard V. Goering .

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  1. Departments of Laboratory Medicine and Internal Medicine, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, NY, USA

    Yi-Wei Tang

  2. Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology and Medicine, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, TN, USA

    Charles W. Stratton

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Goering, R.V. (2018). Molecular Typing Techniques: State of the Art. In: Tang, YW., Stratton, C. (eds) Advanced Techniques in Diagnostic Microbiology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-33900-9_15

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