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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2002, p. 4130-4131, Vol. 68, No. 8
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.8.4130-4131.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Asaia sp., an Unusual Spoilage Organism of Fruit-Flavored Bottled Water

John E. Moore,^* Mark McCalmont, Jiru Xu, B. Cherie Millar, and Neville Heaney

Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory, Department of Bacteriology, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast BT9 7AD, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom

Received 16 January 2002/ Accepted 3 May 2002

A gram-negative bacillus was isolated from a batch of fruit-flavored bottled water, which had spoiled as a result of bacterial overgrowth (>10⁶ CFU/ml). The spoilage organism was extremely difficult to identify phenotypically and was poorly identified as Pasturella sp. (78.7% identification profile) employing the API 20NE identification scheme, which gave the profile 5040000. Molecular identification through PCR amplification of a partial region of the 16S rRNA gene followed by direct automated sequencing of the PCR amplicon allowed identification of the organism. Due to the sequence identity (100%) between the spoilage organism and a reference strain in GenBank, the spoilage isolate was considered to be an Asaia sp., a recently described genus and member of the acetic acid bacteria. This is the first report of Asaia sp. causing spoilage of a foodstuff and highlights the benefits of molecular identification techniques based on 16S rRNA gene sequences in the identification of unusual spoilage organisms.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Northern Ireland Public Health Laboratory, Department of Bacteriology, Belfast City Hospital, Belfast BT9 7AD, Northern Ireland, United Kingdom. Phone: 44 (28) 9026 3554. Fax: 44 (28) 2589 2887. E-mail: jemoore{at}niphl.dnet.co.uk.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, August 2002, p. 4130-4131, Vol. 68, No. 8
0099-2240/02/$04.00+0     DOI: 10.1128/AEM.68.8.4130-4131.2002
Copyright © 2002, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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