Mahony D E, Clow J, Atkinson L, Vakharia N, Schlech W F
Department of Microbiology, Faculty of Medicine, Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.
Appl Environ Microbiol. 1991 Jul;57(7):1873-9. doi: 10.1128/aem.57.7.1873-1879.1991.
A combination of bacteriocin, bacteriophage, and plasmid typing techniques was used to differentiate strains of Clostridium difficile. A typing set of 20 bacteriocin-producing strains was established after 400 isolates of C. difficile were screened for the ability to produce bacteriocin. These strains were used to type a collection of 114 isolates of C. difficile. Forty-six (40%) of the 114 isolates were typeable, and 31 typing patterns were distinguishable. Plasmid typing of the same 114 isolates of C. difficile showed that 67 (59%) of the isolates carried up to four plasmids ranging from 7 to 60 kb in size, although most strains contained only one or two plasmids. Twenty different plasmid typing patterns were observed among the isolates. A combination of bacteriocin and plasmid typing provided 77% typeability. Fifteen (13%) of the 114 strains were typeable with five bacteriophages isolated in our laboratory, but the increase in typeability of strains over that obtainable by plasmid and bacteriocin typing was only 1.8%. Isolates that were nontypeable by bacteriocins, plasmids, or phages could be divided into two groups on the basis of positive or negative cytotoxin production. This further division of strains would increase the typeability potential by 7%; i.e., the ability to differentiate strains would rise from 77 to 84%, or perhaps 86%, if phage typing were included. We conclude that more than one of the techniques reported in this paper must be used to achieve an acceptable level of typeability of this species.
采用细菌素、噬菌体和质粒分型技术相结合的方法对艰难梭菌菌株进行鉴别。在对400株艰难梭菌进行细菌素产生能力筛选后，建立了一套由20株产细菌素菌株组成的分型菌株集。这些菌株被用于对114株艰难梭菌分离株进行分型。114株分离株中有46株（40%）可分型，可区分出31种分型模式。对同一114株艰难梭菌分离株进行质粒分型显示，67株（59%）分离株携带多达4个大小从7至60 kb的质粒，不过大多数菌株仅含有1个或2个质粒。在分离株中观察到20种不同的质粒分型模式。细菌素和质粒分型相结合的方法可使77%的菌株可分型。114株菌株中有15株（13%）可被我们实验室分离的5种噬菌体分型，但与质粒和细菌素分型相比，菌株可分型性的增加仅为1.8%。不能通过细菌素、质粒或噬菌体分型的分离株可根据细胞毒素产生呈阳性或阴性分为两组。菌株的这种进一步划分可使可分型性潜力提高7%；即，区分菌株的能力将从77%提高到84%，如果包括噬菌体分型，可能提高到86%。我们得出结论，必须使用本文报道的不止一种技术才能达到该菌种可接受的分型水平。
