The local public health agency has received reports of an ou

The local public health agency has received reports of an outbreak of Salmonella gastroenteritis among attendees at a city-sponsored chili cook-off. What techniques from recombinant DNA technology would the agency likely use to investigate this outbreak? Describe the expected results from these techniques.

Solution

Please note that the investigation of the outbreak would require molecular biology techniques, not recombinant DNA technology!

There would be two steps in the investigation:

1. Establishing that the gastroenteritis is due to Salmonella: Molecular identification techniques such as FISH (Fluorescence in situ hybridization) or Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC)-PCR can be used.

2. Establishing that the Salmonella among the attendees is of the same strain: Molecular phylogenetic techniques such as 16S rRNA sequencing or MLST (Multilocus Sequence Typing) can be used.