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J Med Microbiol 57 (2008), 218-224; DOI: 10.1099/jmm.0.47489-0
© 2008 Society for General Microbiology
ISSN 1473-5644

A new phylogenetic group of Propionibacterium acnes

Andrew McDowell1, Alexandra L. Perry2, Peter A. Lambert2 and Sheila Patrick1

1 School of Medicine and Dentistry, Queen's University, Belfast BT12 6BN, UK

2 Pharmaceutical and Biological Sciences, School of Life and Heath Sciences, Aston University, Birmingham B4 7ET, UK

Correspondence
Andrew McDowell
a.mcdowell{at}qub.ac.uk

Received 2 July 2007
Accepted 12 October 2007

Immunofluorescence microscopy-based identification of presumptive Propionibacterium acnes isolates, using the P. acnes-specific mAb QUBPa3, revealed five organisms with an atypical cellular morphology. Unlike the coryneform morphology seen with P. acnes types I and II, these isolates exhibited long slender filaments (which formed large tangled aggregates) not previously described in P. acnes. No reaction with mAbs that label P. acnes types IA (QUBPa1) and II (QUBPa2) was observed. Nucleotide sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene (1484 bp) revealed the isolates to have between 99.8 and 99.9 % identity to the 16S rRNA gene of the P. acnes type IA, IB and II strains NCTC 737, KPA171202 and NCTC 10390, respectively. Analysis of the recA housekeeping gene (1047 bp) did reveal, however, a greater number of conserved nucleotide polymorphisms between the sequences from these isolates and those from NCTC 737 (98.9 % identity), KPA171202 (98.9 % identity) and NCTC 10390 (99.1 % identity). Phylogenetic investigations demonstrated that the isolates belong to a novel recA cluster or lineage distinct from P. acnes types I and II. We now propose this new grouping as P. acnes type III. The prevalence and clinical importance of this novel recA lineage amongst isolates of P. acnes remains to be determined.

Abbreviations: IFM, immunofluorescence microscopy; NCTC, National Collection of Type Cultures; ROH, Royal Orthopaedic Hospital.

The GenBank/EMBL/DDBJ accession numbers for the recA and 16s RNA sequences of Propionibacterium acnes reported in this paper are DQ672246–DQ672256 and DQ672257–DQ672261, respectively.

A figure of recA sequence alignments is available as supplementary data with the online version of this paper.






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