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Journal of Clinical Microbiology, September 2001, p. 3326-3331, Vol. 39, No. 9
School of Medical Technology, National Taiwan
University College of Medicine,1
and Department of Laboratory Medicine, National Taiwan
University Hospital,2 Taipei, Taiwan
Received 20 March 2001/Returned for modification 14 May
2001/Accepted 3 July 2001
Amplification of the partial Cpn60 (or GroEL) gene segment has been
used for identification of many bacteria, including
Enterococcus species. To obtain more sequence data from
groESL genes of Enterococcus faecalis,
the full-length sequence of the E. faecalis groESL genes containing groES (285 bp), spacer (57 bp), and
groEL (1,626 bp) was determined. A database search of
GenBank revealed that the deduced E. faecalis GroES and
GroEL proteins show significant homology to the GroES and GroEL
proteins of other bacteria. The GroEL (groEL) of
E. faecalis had the highest identity with
Streptococcus pneumoniae (81.8% amino acid sequence
identity and 73.0% nucleotide sequence identity), followed by
Lactococcus zeae, while GroES (groES) had
60.2% (64.6%) identity with Lactobacillus zeae and 58.5% (66.2%) identity with Lactococcus lactis,
followed by 57.0% (65.5%) identity with Bacillus
subtilis. Based on the groES sequence, an
E. faecalis-specific PCR assay was developed, and this
PCR assay was positive for all the E. faecalis strains
tested. Dot blot hybridization using either groES or
groEL as the probe distinguished E.
faecalis clearly from other species, indicating that both genes can be used as suitable targets for E. faecalis
identification. Moreover, broad-range PCR-restriction fragment length
polymorphism of groESL was designed to differentiate
eight commonly encountered Enterococcus species. The
Enterococcus species of reference strains could be
easily differentiated on the basis of restriction patterns produced by
HaeIII and RsaI. The DNA-based assays
developed in this study provide an alternative to currently used
methods of identification for clinically important enterococcal species.
0095-1137/01/$04.00+0 DOI: 10.1128/JCM.39.9.3326-3331.2001
Copyright © 2001, American Society for Microbiology. All rights reserved.
Determination of Enterococcus faecalis
groESL Full-Length Sequence and Application for Species
Identification
*
Corresponding author. Mailing address: School of
Medical Technology, National Taiwan University College of Medicine, No
1, Chang-Te St., Taipei, Taiwan. Phone: 886-2-23123456, ext. 6918. Fax:
886-2-23711574. E-mail: ljteng{at}ha.mc.ntu.edu.tw.
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