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Absence Of Spiroplasma Or Other Bacterial 16s Rrna Genes In Brain Tissue Of Hamsters With Scrapie, Irina Alexeeva, Ellen J. Elliott, Sandra Rollins, Gail E. Gasparich, Jozef Lazar, Robert G. Rohwer
Absence Of Spiroplasma Or Other Bacterial 16s Rrna Genes In Brain Tissue Of Hamsters With Scrapie, Irina Alexeeva, Ellen J. Elliott, Sandra Rollins, Gail E. Gasparich, Jozef Lazar, Robert G. Rohwer
Gail Gasparich
Spiroplasma spp. have been proposed to be the etiological agents of the transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs). In a blind study, a panel of 20 DNA samples was prepared from the brains of uninfected hamsters or hamsters infected with the 263K strain of scrapie. The brains of the infected hamsters contained ≥1010 infectious doses/g. The coded panel was searched for bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences, using primers selective for spiroplasma sequences, primers selective for mollicutes in general, and universal bacterial primers. After 35 PCR cycles, no samples were positive for spiroplasma or any other bacterial DNA, while control Spiroplasma mirum genomic …