In
this article, several researchers developed a functional gene array capable of
elucidating the pathogenic potential of an environment; they named it
PathoChip. The PathoChip was assembled containing thousands of DNA probes that
are able to detect genes spanning 13 different virulence factors (see Figure).
To test the efficiency of the PathoChip design, the researchers tested the
pathogenicity of three separate environments before and upon exposure to
stress. The first two, soil with elevated temperature and oil-contaminated
marine water, were found to have significant increases in the presence of
virulence genes. Production of the PathoChip now makes it feasible to assess
the potential pathogenicity of an environment and may help reduce the incidence
of human infection by bacteria.
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| Figure from Lee et al. (2013). Table showing the 13 general virulence factors that were used to assemble the PathoChip functional gene array. Also on table is the number of different probes that were attached for each kind of factor. |
Original
Article: Lee YJ, van Nostrand JD, Tu Q, Lu Z, Cheng L, Yuan T, Den Y, Carter
MQ, He Z, Wu L, Yang F, Xu J, Zhou J. (2013). The PathoChip, a functional gene
array for assessing pathogenic properties of diverse microbial communities.
ISME J 7: 1974-1984.
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