Eleven strains of Burkholderia cepacia were isolated directly from clinical specimens: 10 from sputum of cystic fibrosis patients, and one from a vaginal swab. They were biochemically identified using API20NE and confirmed by a PCR-based assay. The genomovar characterisation obtained by specific PCR amplification revealed seven strains belonging to genomovar I, three belonging to genomovar IIIA and one belonging to genomovar IV. All isolates were also typed by ribotyping and random amplification of polymorphic DNA analysis. Some of the characterised strains were examined for the ability to produce exopolysaccharides, with the aim of correlating the genomovar with the exopolysaccharide structure. The polysaccharides were analysed by means of methylation analysis and 1H NMR spectroscopy in order to determine structural similarities. It was shown that different strains are capable of producing chemically different polysaccharides.
Burkholderia, Burkholderia cepacia, Molecular Sequence Data, polysaccharides, adolescence, bacterial typing techniques, pneumonia
NCBI PubMed ID: 12007661Journal NLM ID: 7705721Publisher: Blackwell Publishing
Correspondence: cescutti@bbcm.univ.trieste.it (P. Cescutti)
Institutions: Dipartimento di Scienze Biomediche, Universita di Trieste, via Fleming 22, I-34127 Trieste, Italy, Dipartimento di Biochimica, Biofisica e Chimica delle Macromolecole, Universita di Trieste, via L. Giorgieri 1, I-34127 Trieste, Italy, POLY-tech Scarl, Area di Ricerca, Padriciano 99, I-34012 Trieste, Italy, Centro di Fibrosi Cistica, IRCCS, Burlo Garofolo, via dell'Istria 65/1, I-34012 Trieste, Italy
Methods: 1H NMR, methylation, PCR, DNA techniques, GLC
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