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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2000, p. 3165-3173, Vol. 38, No. 9
Department of Pediatrics, University of
British Columbia and British Columbia's Children's Hospital, British
Columbia's Research Institute for Children's and Women's
Health,1 Molecular Diagnostics
Laboratory, British Columbia's Centre for Disease Control, and
Department of Pathology, University of British
Columbia,2 Terragen Diversity
Incorporated,3 Department of
Microbiology, University of British
Columbia,4 and Department of Medicine,
University of British Columbia,5 Vancouver,
British Columbia, Canada, and Laboratory for Microbiology,
Faculty of Science, University of Ghent, Ghent,
Belgium6
Received 17 February 2000/Returned for modification 28 April
2000/Accepted 12 June 2000
Bacteria of the Burkholderia cepacia complex consist of
five discrete genomic species, including genomovars I and III and three
new species: Burkholderia multivorans (formerly genomovar II), Burkholderia stabilis (formerly genomovar IV), and
Burkholderia vietnamiensis (formerly genomovar V). Strains
of all five genomovars are capable of causing opportunistic human
infection, and microbiological identification of these closely related
species is difficult. The 16S rRNA gene (16S rDNA) and recA
gene of these bacteria were examined in order to develop rapid tests
for genomovar identification. Restriction fragment length polymorphism
(RFLP) analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rDNA revealed sequence
polymorphisms capable of identifying B. multivorans and
B. vietnamiensis but insufficient to discriminate strains
of B. cepacia genomovars I and III and B. stabilis. RFLP analysis of PCR-amplified recA
demonstrated sufficient nucleotide sequence variation to enable
separation of strains of all five B. cepacia complex
genomovars. Complete recA nucleotide sequences were
obtained for 20 strains representative of the diversity of the B. cepacia complex. Construction of a recA phylogenetic
tree identified six distinct clusters (recA groups):
B. multivorans, B. vietnamiensis, B. stabilis, genomovar I, and the subdivision of genomovar III
isolates into two recA groups, III-A and III-B. Alignment
of recA sequences enabled the design of PCR primers for the
specific detection of each of the six latter recA groups. The recA gene was found on the largest chromosome within
the genome of B. cepacia complex strains and, in contrast
to the findings of a previous study, only a single copy of the gene was
present. In conclusion, analysis of the recA gene of the
B. cepacia complex provides a rapid and robust nucleotide
sequence-based approach to identify and classify this taxonomically
complex group of opportunistic pathogens.
0095-1137/00/$04.00+0
Copyright © 2000, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
DNA-Based Diagnostic Approaches for Identification
of Burkholderia cepacia Complex, Burkholderia
vietnamiensis, Burkholderia multivorans,
Burkholderia stabilis, and Burkholderia
cepacia Genomovars I and III

*
Corresponding author. Present address: Cardiff School
of Biosciences, Main Building, Cardiff University, P.O. Box 915, Cardiff CF10 3TL, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 (029) 20875875. Fax: 44 (029) 20874305. E-mail: MahenthiralingamE{at}cardiff.ac.uk.
Present address: Department of Medical Genetics, University of
Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
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