MICROCHECK

Tracking/Trending Microbes

In QC operations of the pharmaceutical, medical device, health/cosmetics, and food industries, strain "tracking" is often useful in determining the source of microbes found to be contaminating the product or the production environment. Criteria essential for efficiently tracking the origins of strains are speed, accuracy, precision, and cost effectiveness. The comparative analysis of microbial strains (both known and unknown) has a broad range of applications in research. The visual representations of the relatedness between strains produced by tracking/trending can also help in a variety of research settings.

Dendrogram

Multivariate cluster analysis is a precise, rapid, accurate method of comparing and tracking microbial strains. Cluster analysis uses simple mathematics to display similarities among objects in a set. Microcheck analyzes the "set" of microbes in question using FAME analysis. The resulting data is entered into a data matrix, a resemblance coefficient is computed for each successive pair of strains, and the clustering method places the strain pairs into a tree to simplify interpretation.

A dendrogram is a cluster analysis program for the comparison of microbial strains. A dendrogram arranges data from the selected FAME profiles to generate easy-to-understand plots that show relationships of organisms. Any strain can be effectively analyzed and compared to other strains, even those not matched to the 2,100+ species in the FAME database.

A dendrogram cluster analysis produces unweighted pair matchings based on their FAME profiles and displays the relatedness of pairs in a simple graph. Experience with this format has shown that multiple analyses of the same strain over a period of time result in linkages among samples of that strain at a level of 2 Euclidian distances or lower.

Custom Phylogenetic Trees

A Phylogenetic Tree is generated based on the differences between the sequences of library entries and/or client samples. Base pair differences between two organisms are weighted differently to determine a percent similarity. The distances in the branches of the tree are mathematically calculated based on these percents and adjusted accordingly.

A Custom Phylogenetic Tree can be generated using any past or current sample sequenced by Microcheck and any of the species available in our validated databases. This tool can be very helpful when trying to determine the level of mutation imposed on a specific sample when compared to the original strain. This can also be a valuable asset in trending the changes within a species or genus over time. Records obtained from the gene sequencing procedure are always available to assist in the ease of accessing past data.

For more information about dendrograms and custom phylogenetic trees used in tracking, trending and research, please contact us.