title: Identification of clinically relevant enterococcus species by direct sequencing of groES and spacer region.
abstract: We determined the groESL sequences (groES, groEL, and the intergenic spacer) of 10 clinically relevant Enterococcus species and evaluated the feasibility of identifying Enterococcus species on the basis of these sequences. Seven common clinical Enterococcus species, E. faecalis, E. faecium, E. casseliflavus, E. gallinarum, E. avium, E. raffinosus, and E. hirae, and three less common Enterococcus species, E. cecorum, E. durans, and E. mundtii, were examined in this study. We found that the groES genes of these enterococcal species are identical in length (285 nucleotides) and contain an unusual putative start codon, GTG. The lengths and sequences of the intergenic regions (spacers between the groES and groEL genes) are quite variable (17 to 57 bp in length) among Enterococcus species but are conserved in strains within each species, with only a few exceptions. Considerable variation of groES or groEL sequences was also observed. The evolutionary trees of groES or groEL sequences revealed similarities among Enterococcus species. However, the overall intraspecies variation of groES was less than that of groEL. The high interspecies variation and low intraspecies variation indicate that the groES and spacer sequences are more useful than groEL for identification of clinically relevant Enterococcus species. The sequences of these two genetic traits, groES and spacer, can be determined by a single PCR and direct sequencing and may provide important information for the differentiation of closely related species of Enterococcus.
authors.affiliation: Division of Neurosurgery, Department of Surgery, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, No. 1, Chang-Te St., Taipei, Taiwan.
authors.forename: Jui-Chang
authors.initials: JC
authors.lastname: Tsai
authors.forename: Po-Ren
authors.initials: PR
authors.lastname: Hsueh
authors.forename: Hsiao-Mann
authors.initials: HM
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Hui-Jen
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Chang
authors.forename: Shen-Wu
authors.initials: SW
authors.lastname: Ho
authors.forename: Lee-Jene
authors.initials: LJ
authors.lastname: Teng
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D001483:Base Sequence; D018835:Chaperonin 10 / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D018834:Chaperonin 60 / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer / Q000737:chemistry* / Q000235:genetics; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D016908:Gram-Positive Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology*; D006801:Humans; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D010802:Phylogeny; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D018835:Chaperonin 10; D018834:Chaperonin 60; D021903:DNA, Ribosomal Spacer