Identification of Clostridium butyricum and Clostridium beijerinckii by gas-liquid chromatography and sugar fermentation: correlation with DNA homologies and electrophoretic patterns.

Sixty-five strains of clostridia of the butyricum group were studied by DNA-DNA hybridization, electrophoresis of cell proteins, gas-liquid chromatography, and fermentation of glycerol, inositol and ribose. The DNA--DNA hybridization results confirmed that strains of this group belong to two main species, Clostridium butyricum and C. beijerinckii. Five strains did not hybridize with the reference strains of these two species. Most of the strains could be identified by quantitative gas-liquid chromatographic analysis combined with fermentation patterns. The other strains could be identified by their protein electrophoretic patterns.