title: Genotypic and phenotypic characteristics of Corynebacterium diphtheriae strains isolated from patients in belarus during an epidemic period.
abstract: One hundred two Corynebacterium diphtheriae strains (93 of the gravis biotype and nine of the mitis biotype) isolated from clinical cases during the Belarus diphtheria epidemic were characterized by biotyping, toxigenicity testing by the Elek test and an indirect hemagglutination assay, phage typing, and ribotyping. The gravis biotype strains were characterized as high and medium toxin producers, and strains of biotype mitis were characterized as low and medium toxin producers. Most strains (82 of 102) were distributed among five phage types. Seventy-two strains (64 of the gravis biotype and 8 of the mitis biotype) belonged to phage type VI ls5,34add. Hybridization of genomic DNA digested with BstEII and PvuII revealed five ribotype patterns, namely, D1, D4, D6, D7, and D13. The majority of gravis biotype strains belonged to ribotypes D1 (49 of 93) and D4 (33 of 93) and included one clonal group of C. diphtheriae. This clone predominated in all regions in Belarus. There was a statistical association between ribotypes and phage types but not between ribotypes and levels of toxin production.
authors.affiliation: Belarusian Research Institute for Epidemiology and Microbiology, Minsk, Belarus, France. titov@briem.ac.by
authors.forename: Leonid
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Titov
authors.forename: Valentina
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Kolodkina
authors.forename: Alina
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dronina
authors.forename: Francine
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grimont
authors.forename: Patrick A D
authors.initials: PA
authors.lastname: Grimont
authors.forename: Monique
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lejay-Collin
authors.forename: Aruni
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: de Zoysa
authors.forename: Constantin
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Andronescu
authors.forename: Angela
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Diaconescu
authors.forename: Byanca
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Marin
authors.forename: Androulla
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Efstratiou
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001434:Bacteriophage Typing; D003353:Corynebacterium diphtheriae / Q000145:classification / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification* / Q000378:metabolism; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004165:Diphtheria / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D004167:Diphtheria Toxin / Q000378:metabolism; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D010641:Phenotype; D002094:Republic of Belarus / Q000453:epidemiology; D021521:Ribotyping; D013223:Statistics as Topic
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004167:Diphtheria Toxin