Evaluation of tRNA intergenic length polymorphism (tDNA-pCR) for the differentiation of the members of the Burkholderia cepacia complex.
Nowadays, tentative identification of B. cepacia complex bacteria in routine diagnostic laboratories is based on a combination of selective media, conventional biochemical reactions, commercial test systems and PCR-based assays. Some of these assays have the capacity to discriminate reliably among several members of the B. cepacia complex, however one single method differentiating all B. cepacia-like organisms is not available. In this study, the applicability of tDNA-PCR for the differentiation and rapid identification of the different members of the B. cepacia complex was evaluated. For B. gladioli and most of the B. cepacia genomovars, differentiable patterns were obtained. For some of the members of the B. cepacia complex however, the tDNA-PCR patterns were very similar and sometimes multiple patterns existed within in a single genomovar. No distinction could be made between the tDNA-PCR patterns of B. vietnamiensis and B. pyrrocinia and of B. cepacia genomovars I and VIII respectively. We could conclude that, although tDNA-PCR is not sufficient as a single method to identify all the members of the B. cepacia complex unambiguously or to replace the currently used methods, it is a very fast and easily applicable method that could be a very useful tool for the differentiation and identification of B. cepacia-like organisms.
Storms
Virginie
V
Department of Biochemistry, Physiology and Microbiology, Faculty of Sciences, University of Gent, Belgium. virginie.storms@rug.ac.be
van den Vreken
Natasja
N
Gillis
Monique
M
Vandamme
Peter
P
D000818:Animals; D019121:Burkholderia Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D016956:Burkholderia cepacia / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D003550:Cystic Fibrosis / Q000382:microbiology; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D021901:DNA, Intergenic / Q000032:analysis*; D019075:Electrophoresis, Capillary; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D011110:Polymorphism, Genetic; D012343:RNA, Transfer / Q000235:genetics*; D012984:Software
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D021901:DNA, Intergenic; D012343:RNA, Transfer