Multiple loci VNTR analysis

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Multiple loci VNTR analysis" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (February 2012) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

Multiple loci VNTR analysis (MLVA) is a method employed for the

In a typical MLVA, a number of well-selected and characterised (in terms of mutation rate and diversity) loci are amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), so that the size of each locus can be measured, usually by electrophoresis of the amplification products together with reference DNA fragments (a so-called DNA size marker). Different electrophoresis equipment can be used depending on the required size estimate accuracy, and the local laboratory set-up, from basic agarose gel electrophoresis up to the more sophisticated and high-throughput capillary electrophoresis devices.^[1] From this size estimate, the number of repeat units at each locus can be deduced. The resulting information is a code which can be easily compared to reference databases once the assay has been harmonised and standardised.^[2][3]

MLVA has become a major first line typing tool in a number of pathogens where such an harmonisation could be achieved, including Mycobacterium tuberculosis,^[4] Bacillus anthracis,^[5] Brucella.^[6][7]

Some MLVA-associated web sites

• https://web.archive.org/web/20141225151444/http://tandemrepeat.u-psud.fr/
• http://minisatellites.u-psud.fr/
• http://mlva.u-psud.fr/
• http://www.mlva.eu/
• http://www.umcutrecht.nl/subsite/MLVA/
• http://miru-vntrplus.org/
• http://www.pasteur.fr/recherche/genopole/PF8/mlva/
• http://mlva.net/
• https://web.archive.org/web/20130927082141/http://microgeno.org/

Software for analysis of MLVA data

• GeneMapper A commercial software for normalisation and size calling of peaks from a certain brand of capillary electrophoresis machines.
• BioNumerics A commercial bioinformatics solution to store and analyze a large panel of biological data, including MLVA, and more generally character datasets. Normalisation, size calling, size correction, assignment of number of repeats and cluster analysis on MLVA data can be performed.

References