Molecular Characterization of First HumanBartonellaStrain Isolated in Italy

ABSTRACTThe aim of this study was to characterize a Bartonellastrain (BA-1) isolated from a blood culture of an Italian, human immunodeficiency virus-positive patient with bacillary angiomatosis. We analyzed the isolate using molecular biology methods such as whole-cell fatty acid analysis, PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis, type-specific 16S rRNA PCRs, sequence analysis of the 16S rRNA, pulsed-field gel electrophoresis, and arbitrarily primed PCR. The BA-1 isolate turned out to be a Bartonella quintanastrain, similar but not identical to B. quintanaOklahoma, which was used as a control strain.