RESEARCH ARTICLE
Polymorphic Amplified Typing Sequences (PATS) Strain Typing System Accurately Discriminates a Set of Temporally and Spatially Disparate Escherichia coli O157 Isolates Associated with Human Infection
Indira T. Kudva1, *, Sandra Smole2, Robert W. Griffin3, Jeonifer Garren3, Nimisha Kalia2, Megan Murray3, 4, Manohar John3, 5, †, Ralph Timperi2, ††, Stephen B. Calderwood3, 5, 6, *
Article Information
Identifiers and Pagination:
Year: 2013Volume: 7
First Page: 123
Last Page: 129
Publisher ID: TOMICROJ-7-123
DOI: 10.2174/1874285801307010123
Article History:
Received Date: 27/9/2013Revision Received Date: 2/10/2013
Acceptance Date: 2/10/2013
Electronic publication date: 31/10/2013
Collection year: 2013

open-access license: This is an open access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the work is properly cited.
Abstract
Polymorphic Amplified Typing Sequences (PATS) is a PCR-based Escherichia coli O157 (O157) strain typing system. Here, we show that PATS compares excellently with Pulsed-Field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE) in that both methods cluster geographically diverse O157 isolates similarly. Comparative analysis of the results obtained in this simulated “blind” study attests to the discriminating power and applicability of PATS to epidemiological/nosocomial situations.