[Genome-wide non-sequencing strategies for bacterial genome comparison: the necessity and an analysis of the variable bacterial world].

A tremendous success in bacterial genome sequencing has been achieved during the recent years; it resulted in making available, for analysis, multiple sequences of different bacterial genomes, including such pathogens as causative agents of syphilis, typhus, and tuberculosis as well as such organisms like archaebacterias living under extreme conditions. A comparative analysis of bacterial genomes leads to conclusions, which have a general biological value, and, in particular, to the conclusions about mechanisms and evolution rate as well as about the variability of genomes and interrelation between organisms and their habitat. On the other hand, the analysis reveals specific features of separate bacterial species responsible for their pathogenicity and ability to avoid the destruction of the host immune system as well as for adaptation to exist within a certain ecological niche. However, the variability of bacterial genomes is so high that methods, which enable to evaluate the variability without full genome sequencing, are needed to depict adequately the evolution and ecological characteristics of the prokaryotic world and to develop new effective therapeutics and diagnostic tools. The survey covers two approaches to such comparative analysis, i.e. DNA arrays and subtractive hybridization. The advantages and disadvantages of each approach are discussed and the necessity in a new approach combining the positive features of the two mentioned approaches is substantiated.