[APPLICATION OF PULSED FIELD GEL ELECTROPHORESIS FOR MOLECULAR TYPING OF CAUSATIVE AGENTS OF ESPECIALLY DANGEROUS INFECTIONS].

The macro-restriction analysis of the microorganism DNA with the use of gel electrophoresis in pulsed field (PFGE typing, pulse electrophoresis) is applied in molecular biology to study the clonal structure and typing of causative agents of infectious diseases. Determining the degree of the relationship and definition of epidemiological interrelations of studied isolates, as well as studying the evolutionary history of pathogens, is performed by comparing DNA restriction patterns. This review presents an analysis of the use of the pulse electrophoresis in molecular-epidemiological research and the study of phylogeny of especially dangerous infections, cholera, and plague. The possibility of genetic heterogeneity of the Vibrio cholerae and Yersinia pestis populations is demonstrated; territorial and epidemiological characteristics of the spread of different isolate pulso-types, problems and prospects of the PFGE typing method in the system of epidemiological surveillance of cholera and plague in Russia are discussed.