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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2005, p. 4921-4922, Vol. 43, No. 9
0095-1137/05/$08.00+0 doi:10.1128/JCM.43.9.4921-4922.2005
| LETTER TO THE EDITOR |
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In previous publications, we and others (1, 2) have documented the presence of variable repeat regions in the 16S-23S ITS of certain B. henselae isolates. The size of the additional inserts varied from 15 bp to 45 bp (1, 2), and the difference between repeats in different collections implies that this may be a region of some diversity. In our own study, more than 10% of B. henselae isolates (human and feline) examined contained a variable repeat region (1). The primer pair 983as/321s amplifies a sequence which includes this region (GenBank accession no. L35101) (5), and we expect that this will be an important source of error (Table 1). Using the cited GenBank accession number, we derived a predicted ITS amplicon of 648 bp for B. henselae (Fig. 1). If 983as/321s amplicon sizes are used without further analysis, the range expected within B. henselae alone will potentially cause serious misidentifications (Table 1).
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View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Predicted sizes for 983as/321s amplicons of B. henselae and other Bartonella species
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FIG. 1. B. henselae Houston 1 16S-23S ITS region (GenBank accession no. L35101). Marked primers are from previously published work (4, 5). This figure was produced with Gene Construction kit, v. 2.5 (Textco Inc.).
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Belinda Dillon Jon Iredell* Centre for Infectious Diseases and Microbiology Level 3, ICPMR Bldg. Westmead Hospital Hawkesbury Road Westmead, NSW 2145, Australia
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| * Phone: 61-2-98456255, Fax: 61-2-98915317, E-mail: joni{at}icpmr.wsahs.nsw.gov.au |
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-Proteobacteria species and should prove to be useful in the initial screening for Bartonella DNA in patient blood samples. As suggested, a confirmatory typing schema such as multilocus sequence typing should be used, particularly when an unexpected amplicon size is found in a reservoir host or in all instances when determining the Bartonella species in a patient sample.
![]() View larger version (45K): [in a new window] |
FIG. 1. B. henselae Houston 1 16S-23S ITS region (GenBank accession no. L35101). Marked primers are from previously published work (4, 5). This figure was produced with Gene Construction kit, v. 2.5 (Textco Inc.).
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View this table: [in a new window] |
TABLE 1. Predicted sizes for 983as/321s amplicons of B. henselae and other Bartonella species
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Edward B. Breitschwerdt* Ricardo G. Maggi Intracellular Pathogens Research Laboratory College of Veterinary Medicine North Carolina State University Raleigh, NC 27606
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* Phone: (919) 513-8277 Fax: (919) 513-6336 E-mail: ed_breitschwerdt{at}ncsu.edu |
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