Method for the identification and speciation of bacteria of the burkholderia cepacia complex

摘要

Identification and speciation of bacteria of the IBurkholderia cepacia/I complex in a sample can be accomplished by: a) obtaining nucleotide sequence information for the IrecA/I gene in bacteria of the IBurkholderia cepacia/I complex found in the sample; and b) comparing the nucleotide sequence information obtained for the IrecA/I gene in bacteria of the IBurkholderia cepacia/I complex found in the sample with a standard library of nucleotide sequence information comprising standard nucleotide sequence information for at least three species of bacteria of the IBurkholderia cepacia/I complex. Preferably, the nucleotide sequence information is obtained by evaluation of restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP). Other techniques for obtaining sequence information can also be used, including base-by-base determination of the sequence of the region of interest, sequence-specific oligonucleotide hybridization probes, and ligation techniques. Universal primers which can be used for amplification of all known members of the IBurkholderia cepacia/I complex, and genomovar-specific primers which can be used for selective amplification of the IrecA/I gene from bacteria of one genomovar provide alternative analytical modalities. Speciation of bacteria of the IBurkholderia cepacia/I complex can be used as a basis for administration of a vaccine specific to the flagellin of the bacteria, since it is shown that this flagellin is conserved across members of genomovar III, subgroup RG-B.