title: Asaia sp., an unusual spoilage organism of fruit-flavored bottled water.
abstract: A gram-negative bacillus was isolated from a batch of fruit-flavored bottled water, which had spoiled as a result of bacterial overgrowth (>10(6) CFU/ml). The spoilage organism was extremely difficult to identify phenotypically and was poorly identified as Pasturella sp. (78.7% identification profile) employing the API 20NE identification scheme, which gave the profile 5040000. Molecular identification through PCR amplification of a partial region of the 16S rRNA gene followed by direct automated sequencing of the PCR amplicon allowed identification of the organism. Due to the sequence identity (100%) between the spoilage organism and a reference strain in GenBank, the spoilage isolate was considered to be an Asaia sp., a recently described genus and member of the acetic acid bacteria. This is the first report of Asaia sp. causing spoilage of a foodstuff and highlights the benefits of molecular identification techniques based on 16S rRNA gene sequences in the identification of unusual spoilage organisms.
authors.affiliation: Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory, Department of Bacteriology, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast BT9 7AD, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. jemoore@niphl.dnet.co.uk
authors.forename: John E
authors.initials: JE
authors.lastname: Moore
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: McCalmont
authors.forename: Jiru
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: B Cherie
authors.initials: BC
authors.lastname: Millar
authors.forename: Neville
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Heaney
mesh_terms: D016947:Acetobacteraceae / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001628:Beverages / Q000382:microbiology*; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D005638:Fruit / Q000382:microbiology*; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D014871:Water Microbiology
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S