Characterization of Nocardia asteroides isolates from different ecological habitats on the basis of repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR fingerprinting

Abstract

Thirteen isolates of Nocardia asteroides from both soils and aquatic samples (lake and moat sediments, as well as scum from activated sludge), together with a type strain and two known clinical isolates of this species, were characterized by repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR fingerprinting with the BOX-A1R primer. The resulting DNA fingerprint patterns proved to be strain specific, and cluster analysis distinguished the soil isolates, the aquatic isolates, and the known strains as being in separate groups.

FIG. 1.

Fingerprint patterns of Nocardia asteroides strains, obtained by REP-PCR with the BOX-A1R primer. Lanes: 1, 100-bp DNA ladder; 2, LS 001-3; 3, LS 001-4; 4, LS 002-1; 5, LS 002-2; 6, LS 002-5; 7, MS 002-1; 8, AS 004-5; 9, SO 031-3; 10, SO 008-1; 11, SO 008-2; 12, SO 020-4; 13, SO 026-3; 14, SO 027-1; 15, N. asteroides IFO 3384; 16, N. asteroides IFO 3424; 17, N. asteroides JCM 3384^T; 18, 100-bp DNA ladder.

FIG. 2.

Dendrogram of REP-PCR genomic fingerprints of N. asteroides strains. Percent similarity between patterns was calculated using Pearson coefficients. The clustering pattern was generated using the UPGMA method.