Molecular Biological Techniques for Subspecies Identification: An Overview

Abstract

Amongst complementary approaches, structural identification of pathogens and toxins is a privileged strategy of analysis of suspicious outbreaks. Molecular tools can be used to examine both the outer antigenic surface of the pathogen and its genome. The major assets of these molecular tools lie in their extreme sensitivity and the short time they require to provide clues or answers. Another advantage is their ability to perform on pathogen fragments, dead viruses or bacteria, denatured toxins, or even fossils of pathogens that have been dead for years. Identification requires previous knowledge that may range from databases of antigenic structures or serotype-specific antibodies to genome databases. For each tool, the molecular signature it provides for the sample needs to be compared to a set of standards. Assembling and validating such standards is a crucial aspect of the whole strategy in the perspective of monitoring BTW proliferation.