Open AccessUse of the gyrB gene to discriminate among species of the Burkholderia cepacia complex
Author(s) -
Tabacchioni Silvia,
Ferri Lorenzo,
Manno Graziana,
Mentasti Massimo,
Cocchi Priscilla,
Campana Silvia,
Ravenni Novella,
Taccetti Giovanni,
Dalmastri Claudia,
Chiarini Luigi,
Bevivino Annamaria,
Fani Renato
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
fems microbiology letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.899
H-Index - 151
eISSN - 1574-6968
pISSN - 0378-1097
DOI - 10.1111/j.1574-6968.2008.01105.x
Subject(s) - burkholderia cepacia complex , phylogenetic tree , biology , burkholderia , microbiology and biotechnology , gene , genetics , phylogenetics , polymerase chain reaction , bacteria , insertion sequence , species complex , genome , transposable element
Bacteria of the Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) are opportunistic pathogens that can cause serious infections in lungs of cystic fibrosis patients. The Bcc comprises at least nine species that have been discriminated by a polyphasic taxonomic approach. In this study, we focused on the gyrB gene, universally distributed among bacteria, as a new target gene to discriminate among the Bcc species. New PCR primers were designed to amplify a gyrB DNA fragment of about 1900 bp from 76 strains representative of all Bcc species. Nucleotide sequences of PCR products were determined and showed more than 400 polymorphic sites with high sequence similarity values from most isolates of the same species. Phylogenetic tree analysis revealed that most of the 76 gyrB sequences grouped, forming clusters, each corresponding to a given Bcc species.