title: Clonality of Fusobacterium nucleatum in root canal infections.
abstract: Fusobacterium nucleatum is a gram-negative non-spore-forming, non-motile, obligate anaerobic rod that is normally isolated from the oral cavity. Several studies have reported a significant heterogeneity within the F. nucleatum species. The aim of the present study was to analyze the clonal diversity of F. nucleatum strains isolated from intracanal infections and to evaluate the presence of Enterobacterial Repetitive Intergenic Consensus (ERIC)-like sequences in the genome of F. nucleatum. Samples were collected from 13 single-root teeth from adult patients, all having carious lesions, necrotic pulps and radiographic evidence of periradicular bone loss. F. nucleatum was isolated from two different patients (subjects 5 and 7) by culture. Amplification of 19 colonies from subject 5 and 15 colonies from subject 7 using ERIC primers resulted in four clonal types, two per subject. An intense amplicon of approximately 700 bp was generated by ERIC-PCR for all F. nucleatum isolates and F. nucleatum ssp. polymorphum ATCC 10953. The amplification reaction using primer 1254 confirmed the results obtained with the ERIC primer. Our findings indicate that DNA fingerprints provided by ERIC- and Arbitrarily Primed (AP)-PCR may constitute a powerful tool for investigating F. nucleatum clonal diversity.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Microbiology Prof. Paulo de Góes, Universidade Federal do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
authors.forename: S R
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Moraes
authors.forename: J F
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Siqueira
authors.forename: I N
authors.initials: IN
authors.lastname: Rôças
authors.forename: M C S
authors.initials: MC
authors.lastname: Ferreira
authors.forename: R M C P
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: Domingues
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D016301:Alveolar Bone Loss / Q000382:microbiology; D020029:Base Pairing / Q000235:genetics; D002999:Clone Cells; D016384:Consensus Sequence / Q000235:genetics; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D017931:DNA Primers / Q000145:classification; D003731:Dental Caries / Q000382:microbiology; D003786:Dental Pulp Cavity / Q000382:microbiology*; D003790:Dental Pulp Necrosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D005674:Fusobacterium Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D016967:Fusobacterium nucleatum / Q000235:genetics*; D005784:Gene Amplification; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D020071:Interspersed Repetitive Sequences / Q000235:genetics; D010483:Periapical Diseases / Q000382:microbiology; D010641:Phenotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers