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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, July 2002, p. 2370-2380, Vol. 40, No. 7
0095-1137/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/JCM.40.7.2370-2380.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Characterization of an Unusual Mycobacterium: a Possible Missing Link between Mycobacterium marinum and Mycobacterium ulcerans

Department of Microbiology, Mycobacteriology Unit, Institute of Tropical Medicine, B-2000 Antwerp,¹ Laboratory of Microbiology,² BCCM/LMG Bacteria Collection, Ghent University, B-9000 Ghent, Belgium,⁶ Institut de Pharmacologie et Biologie Structurale, UMR 5089, 31077 Toulouse Cedex 04,³ Laboratoire de Référence des Mycobacteries, Institut Pasteur, 75724 Paris Cedex,⁴ Hopital Roger Salengro, CHRU de Lille, 59037 Lille Cedex, France,⁵ Armed Forces Institute of Pathology, Washington, D.C. 20306⁷

Received 17 December 2001/ Returned for modification 16 February 2002/ Accepted 11 April 2002

In an attempt to characterize an unusual mycobacterial isolate from a 44-year-old patient living in France, we applied phenotypic characterizations and various previously described molecular methods for the taxonomic classification of mycobacteria. The results of the investigations were compared to those obtained in a previous study with a set of temporally and geographically diverse Mycobacterium ulcerans (n = 29) and Mycobacterium marinum (n = 29) isolates (K. Chemlal, G. Huys, P.-A. Fonteyne, V. Vincent, A. G. Lopez, L. Rigouts, J. Swings, W. M. Meyers, and F. Portaels, J. Clin. Microbiol. 39:3272-3278, 2001). The isolate, designated ITM 00-1026 (IPP 2000-372), is closely related to M. marinum according to its phenotypic properties, lipid pattern, and partial 16S rRNA sequence. Moreover, fingerprinting by amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP) analysis unequivocally classified this strain as a member of the species M. marinum, although it lacked two species-specific AFLP marker bands. However, PCR and restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis based on M. ulcerans-specific insertion sequence IS2404 showed the presence of this element in a low copy number in isolate ITM 00-1026. In conclusion, the designation of this isolate as a transitional species further supports the recent claim by Stinear et al. (T. Stinear, G. Jenkin, P. D. Johnson, and J. K. Davies, J. Bacteriol. 182:6322-6330, 2000) that M. ulcerans represents a relatively recent phylogenetic derivative of M. marinum resulting from the systematic acquisition of foreign DNA fragments.

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