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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, Feb 1995, 395-401, Vol 33, No. 2
D Haubek, K Poulsen, S Asikainen and M Kilian
Genetic analysis of an Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans population
consisting of 88 clinically well characterized Finnish isolates performed
by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis confirmed that the five serotypes
divide into two phylogenetic lineages, one comprising serotypes b and c and
one comprising serotypes a, d, and e. There was no association between any
subpopulation and the periodontal health status of the subject from whom
the isolates originated, suggesting that the role of A.
actinomycetemcomitans in periodontitis is largely opportunistic in the
population examined. Southern blot analyses of genomic DNA digested with
each of the restriction endonucleases MspI, RsaI, and TaqI revealed
extremely limited genetic polymorphism of the structural leukotoxin gene,
ltxA, and its associated promoter. All isolates hybridized to a 530-bp DNA
fragment derived from the promoter region of the leukotoxin gene operon of
a minimally leukotoxic A. actinomycetemcomitans strain. Deletion of the
530-bp sequence has been associated with significantly increased toxin
production detected among isolates from patients with juvenile
periodontitis in North America but was detected neither among the 88
isolates in the present collection analyzed nor among more than 60 strains
in another population of northern European A. actinomycetemcomitans
isolates analyzed previously.
Copyright © 1995 by the American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Evidence for absence in northern Europe of especially virulent clonal types of Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans
Institute of Medical Microbiology, University of Aarhus, Denmark.
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