title: Rapid distinction between Leptospira interrogans and Leptospira biflexa by PCR amplification of 23S ribosomal DNA.
abstract: Bacterial specific primers were used to amplify 23S rRNA genes from a representative strain from each of the 23 serogroups of the pathogenic Leptospira interrogans and 8 strains from 6 serogroups of the non-pathogenic Leptospira biflexa. Only regions of extreme variability, which had been identified on the basis of homology-based search of all the 23S rRNA sequences available in GenBank database, were sequenced from the amplified products. PCR primers that had the potential to distinguish L. interrogans from L. biflexa species were designed from the derived sequences and a sensitive PCR protocol developed. The PCR method enabled the differentiation of the 59 strains of the 23 serogroups of L. interrogans from the 8 strains of 6 serogroups of L. biflexa. Further investigation by 16S rDNA sequencing of two strains of L. interrogans, which gave unexpected PCR results, provided evidence that they had been misclassified and hence we propose to reassign them to L. biflexa.
authors.affiliation: School of Biomolecular and Biomedical Sciences, Faculty of Science and Technology, Griffith University, Nathan, Brisbane, QLD, Australia.
authors.forename: T H
authors.initials: TH
authors.lastname: Woo
authors.forename: L D
authors.initials: LD
authors.lastname: Smythe
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Symonds
authors.forename: M A
authors.initials: MA
authors.lastname: Norris
authors.forename: M F
authors.initials: MF
authors.lastname: Dohnt
authors.forename: B K
authors.initials: BK
authors.lastname: Patel
mesh_terms: D001483:Base Sequence; D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D007919:Leptospira / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D007921:Leptospira interrogans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000472:pathogenicity; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S / Q000235:genetics*; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA; D017386:Sequence Homology, Amino Acid; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S