Characterization of Francisella tularensis Strains, Comparing Their Carbon Source Utilization

Gyuranecz, M. and Erdélyi, K. and Fodor, L. and Jánosi, K. and Szépe, B. and Füleki, M. and Szőke, I. and Dénes, B. and Makrai, L. (2010) Characterization of Francisella tularensis Strains, Comparing Their Carbon Source Utilization. Zoonoses and Public Health, 57 (6). pp. 417-422. ISSN 1863-1959 (print); 1863-2378 (online)

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Abstract

ThirteenFrancisella tularensisstrains were isolated from 22 seropositive brownhares (Lepus europaeus) originating from different parts of Hungary, and fur-ther two from a patas monkey (Erythrocebus patas) and vervet monkey (Chlorocebus aethiops). The isolates were identified asF. tularensisssp.holarcticaonthe basis of culture, morphological and biochemical characteristics. The identi-fication was verified by polymerase chain reaction and the sequencing of thepartial 16S rRNA gene. Utilization of carbon sources of the 15 F. tularensisstrains was characterized with the Biolog system. The system was able to iden-tify the strains already after 4 h of incubation, not only after the standard 24 h. After the analysis and comparison of the metabolic profiles of our strains withthe Biolog database, it was concluded that not all carbon sources indicated inthe database were utilized by our isolates. The Biolog software fails to distin-guish the highly virulent F. tularensisssp.tularensisand the moderately virulent F. tularensisssp.holarcticabut the Biolog microplates can be manually read todifferentiate the two subspecies based on glycerol source utilization. As all thestudied strains were unable to use glycerol, they could be identified asF. tular-ensisssp.holarctica. The dendrogram based on the metabolic relationship ofthe strains shows that the isolates are very similar to each other, which corre-lates with the conservative genetic character of F. tularensisssp.holarctica.

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