Respiratory Tularemia: Francisella Tularensis and Microarray Probe Designing

BACKGROUND: Francisella tularensis (F. tularensis) is the etiological microorganism for tularemia. There are different forms of tularemia such as respiratory tularemia. Respiratory tularemia is the most severe form of tularemia with a high rate of mortality; if not treated. Therefore, traditional microbiological tools and Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) are not useful for a rapid, reliable, accurate, sensitive and specific diagnosis. But, DNA microarray technology does. DNA microarray technology needs to appropriate microarray probe designing. OBJECTIVE: The main goal of this original article was to design suitable long oligo microarray probes for detection and identification of F. tularensis. METHOD: For performing this research, the complete genomes of F. tularensis subsp. tularensis FSC198, F. tularensis subsp. holarctica LVS, F. tularensis subsp. mediasiatica, F. tularensis subsp. novicida (F. novicida U112), and F. philomiragia subsp. philomiragia ATCC 25017 were studied via NCBI BLAST tool, GView and PanSeq Servers and finally the microarray probes were produced and processed via AlleleID 7.7 software and Oligoanalyzer tool, respectively. RESULTS: In this in silico investigation, a number of long oligo microarray probes were designed for detecting and identifying F. tularensis. Among these probes, 15 probes were recognized as the best candidates for microarray chip designing. CONCLUSION: Calibrated microarray probes reduce the biasis of DNA microarray technology as an advanced, rapid, accurate and cost-effective molecular diagnostic tool with high specificity and sensitivity. Professional microarray probe designing provides us with much more facility and flexibility regarding preparation of a microarray diagnostic chip.