Journal of the Korean Society for Microbiology  1999;34(5):491-500

Identification of Mycobacterium avium complex ( MAC ) clinical Strains to a Species Level by Sequencing and PCR - SSCP Analysis of rpoB DNA.

Bum Joon KIM ; Seung Hyun LEE ; Keun Hwa LEE ; Chung Kyu PARK ; Myung Sik CHOI ; Ik Sang KIM ; Sung Bai CHOI ; Eung Su HWANG ; Chang Yung CHA ; Sang Jae KIM ; Gill Han BAI ; Yoon Hoh KOOK

Keywords

PCR-SSCP; MAC; rpoB DNA

Country

Republic of Korea

Language

Korean

Abstract

A recent study showed that comparative sequence analysis of rpoB DNAs could reveal natural relationships in genus Mycobacterium [J Clin Microbiol. 37 (6). 1999]. rpoB DNAs showed interspecies variation and intraspecies conservation, Based on these data, we developed polymerase chain reaction-single strand conformation polymorphism (PCR-SSCP) protocols which enable species differentiation in genus Mycabacterium. When this assay was applied to 24 clinical isolates identified as M. avium complex (MAC) by biochemical test, these were successfully differentiated into M. avium and M. intracellulare. These results were concordant with those obtained by 16s rDNA analysis. It is the first report that PCR-SSCP analysis of rpoB DNA could be used for species differentiation of MAC strains.