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Case Reports
. 2003 Jun;41(6):2560-8.
doi: 10.1128/JCM.41.6.2560-2568.2003.

Nocardia veterana as a pathogen in North American patients

Patricia S Conville  1 , June M Brown, Arnold G Steigerwalt, Judy W Lee, Dorothy E Byrer, Victoria L Anderson, Susan E Dorman, Steven M Holland, Barbara Cahill, Karen C Carroll, Frank G Witebsky
Affiliations
Case Reports

Nocardia veterana as a pathogen in North American patients

Patricia S Conville et al. J Clin Microbiol. 2003 Jun.

Erratum in

  • J Clin Microbiol. 2004 Feb;42(2):939

Abstract

The molecular methodologies used in our laboratories have allowed us to define a group of Nocardia isolates from clinical samples which resemble the type strain of Nocardia veterana. Three patient isolates and the type strain of N. veterana gave identical and distinctive restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLPs) for an amplified portion of the 16S rRNA gene. These three isolates and the N. veterana type strain also gave identical RFLPs for an amplified portion of the 65-kDa heat shock protein gene, but this pattern was identical to that obtained for the Nocardia nova type strain. Sequence analysis of both a 1,359-bp region of the 16S rRNA gene and a 441-bp region of the heat shock protein gene of the patient isolates showed 100% identities with the same regions of the N. veterana type strain. DNA-DNA hybridization of the DNA of one of the patient isolates with the DNA of the N. veterana type strain showed a relative binding ratio of 82%, with 0% divergence, confirming that the isolate was N. veterana. Biochemical and susceptibility testing showed no significant differences among the patient isolates and the N. veterana type strain. Significantly, the results of antimicrobial susceptibility testing obtained for our isolates were similar to those obtained for N. nova, indicating that susceptibility testing alone cannot discriminate between these species. We present two case studies which show that N. veterana is a causative agent of pulmonary disease in immunocompromised patients residing in North America. We also describe difficulties encountered in using 16S rRNA gene sequences alone for discrimination of N. veterana from the related species Nocardia africana and N. nova because of the very high degree of 16S rRNA gene similarity among them.

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Figures

FIG. 1.
FIG. 1.
Bio-Rad-derived RFLP patterns for isolate A and type strains of Nocardia species. Bands smaller than 60 bp are not shown. Gel 1, HinP1I digests of 16S rRNA gene, 999-bp region; gel 2, DpnII digests of 16S rRNA gene, 999-bp region; gel 3, MspI digests of HSP gene, 439-bp region; gel 4, HinfI digests of HSP gene, 439-bp region. Lanes A, base pair marker; lanes B, isolate A; lanes C, N. veterana DSM 44445T; lanes D, N. africana DSM 44491T; lanes E, N. nova ATCC 33726T; lanes F, N. vaccinii, ATCC 11092T.
FIG. 2.
FIG. 2.
Phylogenetic tree of type strains of Nocardia species and patient isolates prepared by using the ClustalV algorithm of Megalign software (DNAstar, Inc.).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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