Utilization of elongation factor Tu gene (tuf) sequencing and species-specific PCR (SS-PCR) for the molecular identification of Acetobacter species complex.

The aim of this study was to use tuf gene as a molecular target for species discrimination in the Acetobacter genus, as well as to develop species-specific PCR method for direct species identification of Acetobacter aceti. The results showed that most Acetobacter species could be clearly distinguished, and the average sequence similarity for the tuf gene (89.5%) among type strains was significantly lower than that of the 16S rRNA gene sequence (98.0%). A pair of species-specific primers were designed and used to specifically identify A. aceti, but none of the other Acetobacter strains. Our data indicate that the phylogenetic relationships of most strains in the Acetobacter genus can be resolved using tuf gene sequencing, and the novel species-specific primer pair could be used to rapidly and accurately identify the species of A. aceti by the PCR based assay.