CONSTRUCTION OF A COMPARATIVE DATABASE AND IDENTIFICAITON OF VIRULENCE FACTORS THROUGH COMPARISON OF POLYMORPHIC REGIONS IN CLINICAL ISOLATES OF INFECTIOUS ORGANISMS

摘要

The present invention is directed to novel nucleotide sequences to be used for diagnosis, identification of the strain, typing of the strain and giving orientation to its potential degree of virulence, infectivity and/or latency for all infectious diseases more particularly tuberculosis. The present invention also includes method for the identification and selection of polymorphisms associated with the virulence' and /or infectivity in infectious diseases more particularly in tuberculosis by a comparative genomic analysis of the sequences of different clinical isolates/strains of infectious organisms. The regions of polymorphisms, can also act as potential drug targets and vaccine targets. More particularly, the invention also relates to identifying virulence factors of M. tuberculosis strains and other infectious organisms to be included in a diagnostic DNA chip allowing identification of the strain, typing of the strain and finally giving orientation to its potential degree of virulence. Although the present invention has been illustrated with specific reference to the polymorphic region in the Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the said invention is not to be understood and construed as being limited to Tuberculosis but is applicable to all infectious diseases.