title: Genotypic intraspecies heterogeneity of Enterococcus italicus: data from dairy environments.
abstract: The diversity of a collection of 19 Enterococcus italicus strains isolated from different dairy sources was explored using a molecular polyphasic approach, comprising random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD-PCR), repetitive element PCR (REP-PCR), plasmid profiling and ribotyping. The data obtained showed a high-level of biodiversity, not always correlated to the niche of isolation. Particularly, REP-PCR with primer BOXA1R and plasmid profiling allowed the best discrimination at strain level. Exploiting the genome shotgun sequence of the type strain of the species, available in public database, genes related to insertion sequences present on enterococcal Pathogenic Islands (ISEf1, IS905), determinants related to virulence factors (codifying for hemolysin and cell wall surface proteins), exogenously DNA (conjugal transfer protein, replication plasmid protein, pheromone shutdown protein, phage integrase/recombinase) and penicillin binding proteins system were detected. The presence of most of these genes seemed a common genetic trait in the Enterococcus genus, sur gene (cell wall surface protein) was only detected in strains of E. italicus. To our knowledge, this is the first time that specific primers, with the expection of the species-specific probe targeted to 16S rRNA gene, have been designed for this species.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Scienze e Tecnologie Alimentari e Microbiologiche, Sezione di Microbiologia Industriale, Università degli Studi di Milano, Milan, Italy. francesca.borgo@unimi.it
authors.forename: Francesca
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Borgo
authors.forename: Chiara
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ferrario
authors.forename: Giovanni
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Ricci
authors.forename: Maria Grazia
authors.initials: MG
authors.lastname: Fortina
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002417:Cattle; D002611:Cheese / Q000382:microbiology*; D002645:Chickens; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis / Q000737:chemistry / Q000235:genetics; D016983:Enterococcus / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000302:isolation & purification; D005243:Feces / Q000382:microbiology; D005516:Food Microbiology; D005798:Genes, Bacterial; D014644:Genetic Variation; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D031658:Olea / Q000382:microbiology; D010802:Phylogeny; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D019105:Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Technique; D013045:Species Specificity
chemical_list: D004269:DNA, Bacterial