Abstract
Multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE) is a method for characterizing organisms by the relative mobilities under electrophoresis of a large number of intracellular enzymes. These differences in mobility are directly related to mutations at the gene locus that cause amino acid substitutions in the enzyme coded by the gene. Differences in the electrostatic charge between the original and substituted amino acid will affect the net charge of the enzyme, and hence its electrophoretic mobility. Thus, it is possible to relate mobility differences to different alleles at the gene locus for the enzyme in question. These mobility variants are called electromorphs. The unique profile of electromorphs produced for each strain of organism is called an electromorph type (ET).
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Lewontin R. C. and Hubby J. L. (1966) A molecular approach to the study of the hetrozygosity in natural populations. II. Amount of variation and degree of heterozygosity in natural populations of Drosophila pseudoobscura. Genetics 54, 595–609.
Harris H. and Hopkinson D. A. (1976) Handbook of Enzyme Electrophoresis in Human Genetics, North-Holland Publishing Amsterdam.
Selander R. K., Caugant D. A., Ochman H., et al. (1986) Methods of multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for bacterial population genetics and systematics. Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 51, 873–884.
Morizot D. C. and Schmidt M. E. (1990) Starch gel electrophoresis and his-tochemical visualisation of proteins, in Electrophoretic and Isoelectric Focusing Techniques in Fisheries Management (Whitmore D. H., ed.) CRC Press Boston, pp. 23–80.
Rothe G. (1994) Electrophoresis of Enzymes: Laboratory Methods, Springer-Verlag, Berlin New York.
Sneath P. H. A. and Sokal R. R. (1073) Numerical Taxonomy, W. H. Freeman, San Francisco.
Graves L. M. et al. (1994) Comparison of ribotyping and multilocus enzyme electrophoresis for subtyping of Listeria monocytogenes isolates J. Clin. Microbiol. 32, 2936–2943.
Rodriguez E., De Meeus T., Mallie M., et al. (1996) Multicentric epidemiological study of Aspergillus fumigatus isolates by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis J. Clin. Microbiol. 34, 2559–2568.
Musser J. M. and Kapur V. (1992) Clonal analysis of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains from intercontinental sources: association of the mec gene with divergent phylogenetic lineages implies dissemination by horizontal transfer and recombination. J. Clin. Microbiol. 30, 2058–2063.
Pujol C., Joly S., Lockhard S. R., et al. (1997) Parity among the randomly amplified polymorphic DNA method, multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, and southern blot hybridization with the moderately repetitive DNA probe Ca3 for fingerprinting Candida albicans. J.Clin. Microbiol. 35, 2348–2358.
Hall L. M. C., Whiley R. A., Duke B., et al. (1996) Genetic relatedness within and between serotypes of Streptococcus pneumoniae from the United Kingdom: analysis of multilocus enzyme electrophoresis, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and antimicrobial resistance patterns. J. Clin. Microbiol. 34, 853–859.
Richardson B. J., Baverstock P. R., and Adams M. (1986) Allozyme Electrophoresis, Academic Press London, New York.
Hames B. D. (1998) Gel Electrophoresis of Proteins, 3rd ed., Oxford University Press London.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2001 Humana Press Inc.
About this protocol
Cite this protocol
Stanley, T., Wilson, I.G. (2001). Multilocus Enzyme Electrophoresis. In: Spencer, J.F.T., de Ragout Spencer, A.L. (eds) Food Microbiology Protocols. Methods in Biotechnology, vol 14. Humana Press. https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-029-2:369
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1385/1-59259-029-2:369
Publisher Name: Humana Press
Print ISBN: 978-0-89603-867-7
Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-029-2
eBook Packages: Springer Protocols