ARS | Publication request: Ars' Frye on Developing An Array to Detect Antimicrobial Resistance Genes

Submitted to: BioArray News
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: November 16, 2005
Publication Date: November 16, 2005
Citation: Frye, J.G., Jackson, C.R., Englen, M.D., Cray, P.J. 2005. Ars' frye on developing an array to detect antimicrobial resistance genes. BioArray News. November 16, 2005. 5(44):8-10.

Technical Abstract: A team of microbiologists at the Agricultural Research Service in Athens, Ga., has developed a microarray that detects more than 100 antimicrobial-resistance genes in bacteria, according to a recent ARS report. Their work appears in this month's issue of Agricultural Research, and shows how some scientists are using microarray technology to determine which bacteria are becoming resistant to antibiotics and how bacteria continue to develop resistance to new antibiotics in an effort to combat this phenomenon. To learn more about the team's methodology and objectives, BioArray News spoke with ARS microbiologist Jonathan Frye this week. Question: Ideally, what will be done with that chip? Answer: It needs to be tested and validated to show the array is working well. The first array has worked very well, and a paper has been accepted at the International Journal of Antimicrobial Agents. My guess is that it will be published next year. We expect the testing to go forward relatively quickly with this new array, and then we'll have to test it to see if it's detecting most of the genes. The chip will probably go through many [changes]. Once we find out the shortcomings of this chip, we'll add things to the new chip. For instance, we might add probes to detect plasmids because they often carry these resistant genes, or transposons or integrons in phage, because they also carry these resistant genes. So it's a building process.