RpoB-based identification of nonpigmented and late-pigmenting rapidly growing mycobacteria.

ABSTRACT: Nonpigmented and late-pigmenting rapidly growing mycobacteria (RGM) are increasingly isolated in clinical microbiology laboratories. Their accurate identification remains problematic because classification is labor intensive work and because new taxa are not often incorporated into classification databases. Also, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis underestimates RGM diversity and does not distinguish between all taxa. We determined the complete nucleotide sequence of the rpoB gene, which encodes the bacterial beta subunit of the RNA polymerase, for 20 RGM type strains. After using in-house software which analyzes and graphically represents variability stretches of 60 bp along the nucleotide sequence, our analysis focused on a 723-bp variable region exhibiting 83.9 to 97% interspecies similari

SUBMITTER: Adekambi T 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC308974 | biostudies-literature | 2003 Dec

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature