Edited by: Karen Young Kreeger
F.C. Tenover, R.D. Arbeit, R.V. Goering, P.A. Mick, B.E. Murray, D.H. Persing, B. Swaminathan, "Interpreting chromosomal DNA restriction patterns produced by pulsed- field gel electrophoresis: Criteria for bacterial strain typing," Journal of Clinical Microbiology, 33:2233-9, 1995. (Cited in nearly 70 publications as of March 1997)

Comments by Fred C. Tenover, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

The detective work performed by hospital microbiologists during outbreaks of infectious disease is aided by pulsed- field gel electrophoresis (PFGE). Using a jolt of electricity, this technique separates bands of microbial DNA on an agar gel plate. Differences in banding patterns correlate to different strains and species of bacteria.


BETTER INTERPRETATION: CDC’s Fred Tenover and colleagues developed criteria to unify microbial databases derived from pulse-field gel electrophoresis.
"PFGE has emerged over the last few years as one of the best strain-typing methods we have for bacterial infections,...

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