Characterisation of non-pigmented species of the genus Prevotella by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis.

Gram-negative anaerobic bacilli previously known as the melaninogenicus-oralis group of Bacteroides have been assigned to a new genus, Prevotella. The non-pigmented members of this genus share several general characteristics and cannot be readily distinguished by routine tests. A polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis procedure, with visual analysis of protein patterns, was used to compare cellular protein patterns from clinical isolates with those from collection (reference) strains. Reference strains of P. oralis, P. veroralis, P. buccalis, P. oris, P. buccae, P. zoogleoformans, P. bivia, P. disiens, P. oulora, B. (P.) capillus and B. (P.) pentosaceus, and 91 non-pigmented isolates from patients with adult periodontal disease were examined by conventional biochemical tests, gas-liquid chromatography (GLC) and enzyme tests, and whole-cell protein profiles were obtained by SDS-PAGE. There was close correlation between patterns of results in biochemical and GLC tests and the SDS-PAGE profiles, and the species were readily distinguished in SDS-PAGE. The periodontal isolates were assigned to 10 groups by conventional test reaction patterns and nine groups by SDS-PAGE; the profiles of 79 isolates corresponded to those of seven species reference strains. By SDS-PAGE, clinical isolates of P. buccae (42 isolates) and P. oralis (eight isolates) showed good similarity with reference strains. However, for P. veroralis (15), P. oris (7), P. bivia (4), P. zoogleoformans (2) and P. buccalis (1), clinical isolates showed some minor variations from reference strains. Twelve isolates remained undesignated in SDS-PAGE analysis. Variant SDS-PAGE profiles divided clinical isolates of P. buccae into two subgroups and those of P. veroralis into five subgroups.