Tailed pooled suppression subtractive hybridization (PSSH) adaptors do not alter efficiency.

Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) and its derivative, Pooled Suppression Subtractive hybridization (PSSH), are powerful tools used to study variances larger than ~100 bp in prokaryotic genome structure. The initial steps involve ligating an oligonucleotide of known sequence (the "adaptor") to a fragmented genome to facilitate amplification, subtraction and downstream sequencing. SSH results in the creation of a library of unique DNA fragments which have been traditionally analyzed via Sanger sequencing. Numerous next generation sequencing technologies have entered the market yet SSH is incompatible with these platforms. This is due to the high level of sequence conservation of the oligonucleotide used for SSH. This rigid adherence is partly because it has yet to be determined if alteration of this oligonucleotide will have a deleterious impact on subtraction efficiency. The subtraction occurs when non-unique fragments are inhibited by a secondary self-pairing structure which requires exact nucleotide sequence. We determine if appending custom sequence to the 5' terminal ends of these oligonucleotides during the nested PCR stages of PSSH will reduce subtraction efficiency. We compare a pool of ten S. aureus clinical isolates with a standard PSSH and custom tailed-PSSH. We detected no statistically significant difference between their subtraction efficiencies. Our observations suggest that the adaptor's terminal ends may be labeled during the nested PCR step. This produces libraries labeled with custom sequence. This does not lead to loss of subtraction efficiency and would be invaluable for groups wishing to combine SSH or PSSH with their own downstream applications, such as a high throughput sequencing platform.

Development of pooled suppression subtractive hybridization to analyze the pangenome of Staphylococcus aureus.

We describe the development and application of a Pooled Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (PSSH) method to describe differences between the genomic content of a pool of clinical Staphylococcus aureus isolates and a sequenced reference strain. In comparative bacterial genomics, Suppression Subtractive Hybridization (SSH) is normally utilized to compare genomic features or expression profiles of one strain versus another, which limits its ability to analyze communities of isolates. However, a PSSH approach theoretically enables the user to characterize the entirety of gene content unique to a related group of isolates in a single reaction. These unique fragments may then be linked to individual isolates through standard PCR. This method was applied to examine the genomic diversity found in pools of S.aureus isolates associated with complicated bacteremia infections leading to endocarditis and osteomyelitis. Across four pools of 10 isolates each, four hundred and twenty seven fragments not found in or significantly divergent from the S. aureus NCTC 8325 reference genome were detected. These fragments could be linked to individual strains within its pool by PCR. This is the first use of PSSH to examine the S. aureus pangenome. We propose that PSSH is a powerful tool for researchers interested in rapidly comparing the genomic content of multiple unstudied isolates.

PCR versus hybridization for detecting virulence genes of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli.

We compared PCR amplification of 9 enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli virulence factors among 40 isolates (21 O/H antigenicity classes) with DNA hybridization. Both methods showed 100% of the chromosomal and phage genes: eae, stx, and stx2. PCR did not detect 4%-20% of hybridizable plasmid genes: hlyA, katP, espP, toxB, open reading frame (ORF) 1, and ORF2.