Relationships of nontypeable Haemophilus influenzae strains to hemolytic and nonhemolytic Haemophilus haemolyticus strains.

ABSTRACT: Haemophilus influenzae is both a human respiratory pathogen and pharyngeal commensal, while H. haemolyticus, the closest phylogenetic relative of H. influenzae, is arguably a strict pharyngeal commensal. A hemolytic phenotype has historically differentiated H. haemolyticus from H. influenzae, but the recent recognition of significant nonhemolytic H. haemolyticus colonization has decreased this trait's resolvability. Given this and the potential of recombination between the species, we examined the distribution of microbiologic and molecular traits between collections of H. influenzae and H. haemolyticus strains separated within a dendrogram obtained by multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA). All strains hybridizing with a probe to iga, a gene encoding an immunoglobulin A protease of H. influe

SUBMITTER: McCrea KW 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2238123 | biostudies-literature | 2008 Feb

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature