Bacteria are categorized using "repeats," the short repeating sequences of DNA they contain, to differentiate microorganisms from one another. That process of differentiation, and in turn the process of working to develop treatments for bacterial infections, just got a little bit easier due to a database created by Pullman-based Washington State University researchers.
The database, called RepeatAnalyzer, was designed with the complexity of bacteria in mind, Assefaw Gebremedhin, PhD, a WSU professor and researcher involved with the database, said in a statement. The researchers used the example of Anaplasma marginale, a tick-borne bacteria that affects cattle, to demonstrate the number of variations that can be contained in a single bacterial strain. More than 235 repeats have been identified for A. marginale, leading to error-prone manual tracking of the bugs.
"This reliable software tool can fuel research and collaboration and accelerate the path to the discovery of a vaccine," Dr. Gebremedhin said. "Here is something that was overlooked and didn't exist. More than anything, it will help people. When you have a tool, and the right metrics and analysis, you may find things you might not have known before."
The research was published in BMC Genomics, and the authors are working to expand the software to offer better analysis and visualization. It is already being used by collaborators in China and South Africa.