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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2008, p. 875-882, Vol. 74, No. 3
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01539-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Differentiation of Clostridium botulinum Serotype A Strains by Multiple-Locus Variable-Number Tandem-Repeat Analysis ^,

Thomas E. Macdonald,¹ Charles H. Helma,¹ Lawrence O. Ticknor,² Paul J. Jackson,³ Richard T. Okinaka,¹ Leonard A. Smith,⁴ Theresa J. Smith,⁴ and Karen K. Hill^1*

Divisions of Bioscience,¹ Computing, Computational and Statistical Sciences, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545,² Defense Biology Division, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Livermore, California 94551,³ Integrated Toxicology Division, United States Army Medical Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID), Fort Detrick, Maryland 21702⁴

Received 6 July 2007/ Accepted 27 November 2007

Ten variable-number tandem-repeat (VNTR) regions identified within the complete genomic sequence of Clostridium botulinum strain ATCC 3502 were used to characterize 59 C. botulinum strains of the botulism neurotoxin A1 (BoNT/A1) to BoNT/A4 (BoNT/A1-A4) subtypes to determine their ability to discriminate among the serotype A strains. Two strains representing each of the C. botulinum serotypes B to G, including five bivalent strains, and two strains of the closely related species Clostridium sporogenes were also tested. Amplified fragment length polymorphism analyses revealed the genetic diversity among the serotypes and the high degree of similarity among many of the BoNT/A1 strains. The 10 VNTR markers amplified fragments within all of the serotype A strains but were less successful with strains of other serotypes. The composite multiple-locus VNTR analysis of the 59 BoNT/A1-A4 strains and 3 bivalent B strains identified 38 different genotypes. Thirty genotypes were identified among the 53 BoNT/A1 and BoNT/A1(B) strains, demonstrating discrimination below the subtype level. Contaminating DNA within crude toxin preparations of three BoNT/A subtypes (BoNT/A1 to BoNT/A3) also supported amplification of all of the VNTR regions. These markers provide clinical and forensics laboratories with a rapid, highly discriminatory tool to distinguish among C. botulinum BoNT/A1 strains for investigations of botulism outbreaks.

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* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Bioscience Division, MS:M888, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, NM 87545. Phone: (505) 667-1309. Fax: (505) 665-3024. E-mail: khill{at}lanl.gov

Published ahead of print on 14 December 2007.

Supplemental material for this article may be found at http://aem.asm.org/.

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, February 2008, p. 875-882, Vol. 74, No. 3
0099-2240/08/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.01539-07
Copyright © 2008, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

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