title: Molecular characterization of Streptococcus suis strains by 16S-23S intergenic spacer polymerase chain reaction and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
abstract: We developed a new molecular method of typing Streptococcus suis based on polymerase chain reaction (PCR) amplification of a large fragment of rRNA genes, including a part of the 16S and 23S genes and the 16S-23S intergenic spacer region (ISR), followed by restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis with RsaI or MboII endonuclease. The 16S-23S ISRs of 5 S. suis isolates were sequenced and compared. Size and sequence polymorphisms were observed between the S735 reference strain and the 4 wild-type strains. The genetic relationships between 138 independent S. suis strains belonging to various serotypes, isolated from swine or human cases, were determined. The discriminatory power of the method was > 0.95, the threshold value for interpreting typing results with confidence (0.954 with RsaI and 0.984 with RsaI plus MboII). The in vitro reproducibility was 100%. The strains isolated from humans were less genetically diverse than the strains isolated from pigs. For the first time, 2 molecular patterns (R6, M9) were significantly associated with S. suis serotype 2 strains. This genetic tool could be valuable in distinguishing individual isolates of S. suis during epidemiologic investigations.
authors.affiliation: Agence Française de Sécurité Sanitaire des Aliments, Unité de Mycoplasmologie-Bactériologie, BP53, 22440 Ploufragan, France. c.marois@ploufragan.afssa.fr
authors.forename: Corinne
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marois
authors.forename: Laëtitia
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Le Devendec
authors.forename: Marcelo
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Gottschalk
authors.forename: Marylène
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Kobisch
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D001483:Base Sequence; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis*; D020459:Genes, rRNA; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D009693:Nucleic Acid Hybridization; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods / Q000662:veterinary; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S / Q000235:genetics; D016415:Sequence Alignment; D013045:Species Specificity; D017011:Streptococcus suis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S; D012338:RNA, Ribosomal, 23S