1. Sequence diversity of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS) region of the rRNA operons among different serogroups of Legionella pneumophila isolates
- Author
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Carmen Sanz Moreno, David Apraiz, Francisco Rodriguez-Valera, Antonio Amo, Vicente Catalán, Leonor Pascual, Sara Pérez-Luz, and Javier Fernández
- Subjects
DNA, Bacterial ,Molecular Sequence Data ,Applied Microbiology and Biotechnology ,Microbiology ,Legionella pneumophila ,Polymerase Chain Reaction ,Ribotyping ,Intergenic region ,RNA, Transfer ,RNA, Ribosomal, 16S ,DNA, Ribosomal Spacer ,Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis ,Internal transcribed spacer ,Serotyping ,rRNA Operon ,Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics ,Genetics ,biology ,Base Sequence ,Genetic Variation ,Ribosomal RNA ,Amplicon ,bacterial infections and mycoses ,biology.organism_classification ,respiratory tract diseases ,Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field ,RNA, Ribosomal, 23S ,bacteria ,RRNA Operon ,Sequence Alignment - Abstract
The genus Legionella is represented by 48 species and Legionella pneumophila includes 15 serogroups. In this work, we have studied the intergenic 16S-23S spacer region (ITS) in L. pneumophila to determine the feasability of using amplification polymorphisms in this region, to establish intraspecies differences and to discriminate Legionella species. The amplification of this region, using 16S14F and 23S0R primers, and the analysis of amplicons by the analysis of fragments technique showed that all the L. pneumophila serogroups studied presented the same electrophoretic pattern. Moreover, the analysis of different Legionella species showed that the amplification polymorphisms obtained were species-specific. In order to study the sequence variability of this region, the existence in L. pneumophila of three ribosomal operons was determined by pulsed field gel eletrophoresis (PFGE). Two of the 16S-23S rRNA ITS presented a tRNA Ala and the third one a tRNA Ile. Nevertheless, the variability expected in this region of the operon was not found and the rest of the ITS contained only punctual mutations.
- Published
- 2002