Summary auto-generated
This study evaluated ribotyping (rRNA gene restriction site polymorphism analysis) as a taxonomic tool for Staphylococcus species classification. Researchers analyzed 101 staphylococcal strains using EcoRI and HindIII restriction enzymes with a plasmid probe, creating a database (Staph DB) containing 135 EcoRI and 120 HindIII ribotypes from 408 strains representing 42 staphylococcal taxa. Clustering analysis using the Dice coefficient and UPGMA method showed that ribotypes correlated well with species delineation at 62% similarity cutoff, but poorly with subspecies designation. Key findings included inability to distinguish Staphylococcus vitulinus from S. pulvereri by ribotyping despite phenotypic similarities, and ecovar-specific grouping within S. intermedius and S. hyicus. The study suggests ribotyping remains valuable for identifying most staphylococcal species, though subspecies determination requires alternative methods like DNA-DNA hybridization. The authors note that the S. intermedius type strain appears divergent from other strains, suggesting it may not represent the species well.
Key findings
- At 62% similarity cutoff, ribotyping effectively distinguished most Staphylococcus species but could not differentiate subspecies within the same species
- S. vitulinus and S. pulvereri strains showed identical or highly similar ribotypes for both EcoRI and HindIII digestion, suggesting they may represent the same species despite being described as separate taxa
- Ribotyping revealed ecovar-specific clustering within S. hyicus (cow and pig ecovars) and S. intermedius (dog and pigeon ecovars), with results consistent with cpn60 gene analysis
- The S. intermedius type strain (ATCC 29963T from pigeon) was genetically divergent from other S. intermedius strains and more closely related to S. delphini, suggesting it may not be representative of the species
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Abstract
A total of 101 staphylococcal strains were ribotyped using EcoRI and HindIII as restriction enzymes and plasmid pBA2 as the rDNA probe. Isolates from 10 newly described staphylococcal taxa were among those examined. All the ribotypes were added to our database, Staph DB, which now contains the sizes of the bands of 135 EcoRI and 120 HindIII ribotypes from 408 strains belonging to 42 staphylococcal taxa. The relatedness of ribotypes was evaluated by using the Dice coefficient. The ribotypes, and thus the strains, were clustered by the unweighted pair group method with averages (UPGMA). Separation into clusters correlated well with the delineation of the staphylococcal species but not with that of the different subspecies. No discrimination was possible between Staphylococcus vitulinus and Staphylococcus pulvereri. Ecovar-specific groups were evident within Staphylococcus intermedius and Staphylococcus hyicus. The data increase the usefulness of rRNA gene restriction site polymorphism analysis for staphylococcal taxonomy.