Use of temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis to identify flaA and fim3 sequence types in Bordetella bronchiseptica

Aims: The aim of this study was to develop an approach to detect variation in the flaA and fim3 genes amongst animal isolates of Bordetella bronchisep tica using temporal temperature gradient gel electrophoresis (TTGE). Methods and Results: Amplicons representing three flaA and two fim3 sequenc e types were subjected to TTGE analysis. It was possible to distinguish cle arly between each of the sequence types using TTGE. Conclusions: This suggests that TTGE could be a useful tool for studying th e epidemiology of B. bronchiseptica. Significance and Impact of the Study: PCR amplification coupled to TTGE off ers a general method for the rapid screening of large numbers of microbial strains for variations in gene sequences.