Genomic diversity and relationship of Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus cereus by multi-REP-PCR fingerprinting.
The genomic diversity and relationship among 56 Bacillus thuringiensis and Bacillus cereus type strains were investigated by multi-REP-PCR fingerprinting consisting of three PCR reactions targeting the enterobacterial ERIC1 and ERIC2 and the streptococcal BOXA1R consensus sequences. A total of 113 polymorphic bands were generated in the REP-PCR profiles that allowed tracing of a single dendrogram with three major groups. Bacillus cereus strains clustered together in the A and B groups. Most of the B. thuringiensis strains clustered in group C, which included groups of serovars with a within-group similarity higher than 40% as follows: darmstadiensis, israelensis, and morrisoni; aizawai, kenyae, pakistani, and thompsoni; canadensis, entomocidus, galleriae, kurstaki, and tolworthi; alesti, dendrolimus, and kurstaki; and finitimus, sotto, and thuringiensis. Multi-REP-PCR fingerprinting clustered B. thuringiensis serovars in agreement with previously developed multilocus sequence typing schemes, indicating that it represents a rapid shortcut for addressing the genetic relationship of unknown strains with the major known serovars.
Cherif
Ameur
A
Laboratoire miroorganismes et biomolécules actives, Faculté des sciences de Tunis, Campus Universitaire, 2092 Tunis, Tunisia. ameur.cherif@fst.rnu.tn
Ettoumi
Besma
B
Raddadi
Noura
N
Daffonchio
Daniele
D
Boudabous
Abdellatif
A
D001409:Bacillus cereus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D001413:Bacillus thuringiensis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting / Q000379:methods*; D017931:DNA Primers; D014644:Genetic Variation; D016680:Genome, Bacterial; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid / Q000235:genetics*
D017931:DNA Primers