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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2006, p. 7123-7131, Vol. 72, No. 11
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.00018-06
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Identification of Genomic Species in Agrobacterium Biovar 1 by AFLP Genomic Markers

Perrine Portier,¹ Marion Fischer-Le Saux,² Christophe Mougel,^1, Catherine Lerondelle,¹ David Chapulliot,¹ Jean Thioulouse,³ and Xavier Nesme^1*

Ecologie Microbienne, UMR CNRS 5557/USC INRA 1193, Université Claude Bernard-Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France,¹ Pathologie Végétale, INRA, UMR ENITH-Université d'Angers, Beaucouzé, France,² Biométrie et Biologie Evolutive, UMR CNRS 5558, Université Claude Bernard-Lyon 1, Villeurbanne, France³

Received 4 January 2006/ Accepted 14 August 2006

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
Biovar 1 of the genus Agrobacterium consists of at least nine genomic species that have not yet received accepted species names. However, rapid identification of these organisms in various biotopes is needed to elucidate crown gall epidemiology, as well as Agrobacterium ecology. For this purpose, the AFLP methodology provides rapid and unambiguous determination of the genomic species status of agrobacteria, as confirmed by additional DNA-DNA hybridizations. The AFLP method has been proven to be reliable and to eliminate the need for DNA-DNA hybridization. In addition, AFLP fragments common to all members of the three major genomic species of agrobacteria, genomic species G1 (reference strain, strain TT111), G4 (reference strain, strain B6, the type strain of Agrobacterium tumefaciens), and G8 (reference strain, strain C58), have been identified, and these fragments facilitate analysis and show the applicability of the method. The maximal infraspecies current genome mispairing (CGM) value found for the biovar 1 taxon is 10.8%, while the smallest CGM value found for pairs of genomic species is 15.2%. This emphasizes the gap in the distribution of genome divergence values upon which the genomic species definition is based. The three main genomic species of agrobacteria in biovar 1 displayed high infraspecies current genome mispairing values (9 to 9.7%). The common fragments of a genomic species are thus likely "species-specific" markers tagging the core genomes of the species.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
Agrobacteria are common soil and root inhabitants. They are generally inoffensive plant commensals. However, agrobacteria may cause crown gall or hairy root diseases in many plants, including economically important crops, when they harbor a large Ti or Ri plasmid (8, 36). Ti and Ri plasmids can be experimentally transferred by conjugation (13) to numerous bacterial species, most of which are in the family Rhizobiaceae (17, 34, 35). In most cases, new transconjugant species or genera become pathogenic (5, 17, 34, 35). Probably due to in situ plasmid transfer, pathogenic populations of agrobacteria involved in crown gall outbreaks are characterized by a high degree of chromosomal background diversity in terms of genotype, serotype, ribotype, and biovar, while the same Ti plasmids can be associated with various chromosome backgrounds (25, 26, 28, 30). Therefore, elucidating crown gall epidemiology and Ti plasmid ecology requires identification of genuine or potential bacterial Ti plasmid reservoirs in soil and plants at various taxonomic levels.

The current consensus for bacterial species identification (40) is based on DNA-DNA hybridization of whole genomes and indicates that "the phylogenetic definition of a species generally would include strains with approximately 70% or greater DNA-DNA relatedness and with 5°C or less Tm." This definition has recently been supported by an international committee (32), but the committee also indicated that delineation of genomic species can now be obtained with alternative molecular methods that sample parts of the genome instead of DNA-DNA hybridization of whole genomes alone. Among the alternative genome sampling methods, AFLP (38) easily identifies genomic species (24). Multilocus sequence typing (22) or, more generally, multilocus sequence analysis (MLSA) has also been proposed for identification of bacterial species (14). AFLP has the advantage of identifying bacterial species on a genomic basis. The AFLP method is based on analysis of markers which are massively and randomly sampled along the entire genome. Thus, AFLP targets not only genes in the conserved core genome but also accessory genes that have likely ecological relevance for the species. This is important for the concept of ecological species (6, 37), which have been described as clusters of strains adapted to the same ecological niches (e.g., ecotypes). In addition, the AFLP methodology provides high resolution and reveals differences between strains not distinguished by MLSA (1).

Agrobacterium taxonomy is still strongly debated. First, it was proposed that so-called "biovars 1 and 2," which are defined by biochemical characteristics (18, 19, 20), should be redefined at the species level as A. radiobacter and A. rhizogenes, respectively (31). However, based on the International Code of Nomenclature of Bacteria (20a), Bouzar (2) indicated that A. tumefaciens was the type species of the genus and thus should be retained. Controversially, in a request for an opinion, Young et al. (44) decided that the epithet "radiobacter" was proposed before the epithet "tumefaciens" and that A. radiobacter has priority over A. tumefaciens. Moreover, although A. rhizogenes (i.e., "biovar 2") is a true genomic species, as revealed by DNA-DNA hybridization, and therefore a bona fide species, "biovar 1" was found to be a complex of several genomic species (9, 10, 29). Researchers identified nine genomic species or genomospecies in biovar 1 by DNA-DNA hybridization, which were subsequently designated genomic species G1 to G9 (24). The splitting of "biovar 1" into several genomic species does not solve the terminology problem. Actually, the type strain of A. tumefaciens (strain B6 [= ATCC 23308]) belongs to genomic species G4; thus, only genomic species G4 corresponds to the bona fide species A. tumefaciens sensu stricto. Unfortunately, the type strain of A. radiobacter (ATCC 19358) also belongs to the same genomic species (genomic species G4). A choice between A. tumefaciens and A. radiobacter must be made for the name of this taxon. Meanwhile, strain C58, which was completely sequenced twice (15, 41), belongs to genomic species G8, which has not received an accepted species name yet. Genomic species G1 is another unnamed genomic species frequently found in crown gall outbreaks (unpublished results). Second, there is also a long-standing quarrel about the existence of the genus Agrobacterium itself (11, 42, 43). Briefly, Young et al. (42) proposed that the genus Agrobacterium should be eliminated by including all agrobacteria in Rhizobium, essentially to solve the rrs (i.e., 16S rRNA gene) polyphyly problem encountered with the former classification. Farrand et al. (11) recognized Agrobacterium as a definable genus, leaving the rrs polyphyly question pending. The subcommittee on the taxonomy of Agrobacterium and Rhizobium suggested that it is up to individual authors to choose which name they want to use (21). A compromise position is used in this paper. We refer to Agrobacterium as the rrs monophyletic genus, which includes "biovar 1" members and three closely related species, A. larrymoorei (3), A. vitis (formerly known as biovar 3 [27]), and A. rubi (33). Based on rrs phylogeny, strain NCPPB1650 belonging to an undefined related species should also be included in the genus Agrobacterium. The remote "biovar 2" is considered Rhizobium rhizogenes.

The present study was done to facilitate high-throughput identification of agrobacteria using the AFLP methodology, which is useful for genomic species identification and infraspecific typing of a large number of strains. Catalogues of specific AFLP genomic markers, which are conserved among all genomic species members, were established using a set of 52 agrobacterial strains from international collections, and there was a particular emphasis on the three most frequent genomic species of Agrobacterium biovar 1, genomic species G1, G4, and G8. This approach was validated by subsequent DNA-DNA hybridization of some environmental isolates identified as members of genomic species G1, G4, and G8 by AFLP.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
Bacterial strains.
The strains analyzed (Table 1) represent almost all the genomic species richness of the genus Agrobacterium known so far. We placed special emphasis on genomic species G1, G4, and G8 because the numbers of strains of these genomic species identified by DNA-DNA hybridization were greatest (9, 11, and 5 strains, respectively) and because these three species are so closely related that they cannot be distinguished by conventional biochemical tests, leading to their inclusion in a single biovar called "biovar 1." All strains are available from the Collection Française de Bactéries Phytopathogènes, INRA, Angers, France; most are also available from the Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Ghent University, Ghent, Belgium. The clinical isolates of agroabacteria are available from the Collection de l'Institut Pasteur.

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TABLE 1. Genomic species and strains of Agrobacterium used in this study

Eight environmental strains isolated from galls, bulk soil, or root tissue identified as members of biovar 1 after conventional biochemical tests (production of 3-keto-lactose) were included in the study. The AFLP classification in genomic species for six of them was later confirmed by DNA-DNA hybridization.

DNA extraction and purification.
DNA used in AFLP experiments was extracted with a DNeasy tissue kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany) by following the manufacturer's instructions. Genomic DNAs used in DNA-DNA hybridization were extracted as described by Brenner et al. (4).

AFLP analyses.
The AFLP methodology used in this study was adapted from that of Vos et al. (38). The EcoRI and MseI endonucleases were used for genomic DNA restriction as previously described (24), using adaptors and PCR primers shown in Table 2. The digestion-ligation step was performed for 2 h at 37°C with an 11-µl (final volume) mixture by incubating 55 ng of genomic DNA with EcoRI (5 U), MseI (5 U), T4 DNA ligase (1 U), the appropriate quantity of T4 DNA ligase buffer (Boeringer-Manheim, Germany), 0.5 µg of bovine serum albumin, 50 µM NaCl, the EcoRI-specific adaptor (0.18 µM) prepared with F1363-adEco+ hybridized with F1931-adEco–, and the MseI-specific adaptor (1.8 µM) prepared with F1365-adMse+ hybridized with F1931-adMse–. Each adapted DNA (4 µl) was then subjected to a nonselective PCR performed in a 20-µl (final volume) mixture containing 15 µl of the AFLP amplification CoreMix (Perkin-Elmer Applied Biosystems, Foster City, Calif.), 0.25 µM primer F1247-coreEco, and 0.25 µM primer F1248-coreMse. A PE-9600 thermocycler (Perkin-Elmer) was used with the following PCR program: denaturation at 94°C for 20 s, annealing at 56°C for 30 s, and elongation at 72°C for 2 min for 20 cycles. The quality of nonselective PCRs was controlled by agarose gel electrophoresis before storage of well-amplified products at –20°C. A well-amplified product was then typically diluted 1/30 before it was used as a template (1.5 µl) in a selective PCR mixture (final volume, 10 µl) with 7.5 µl of AFLP amplification CoreMix, primer F1248-coreMse (0.25 µM), and fluorescently labeled primers (0.05 µM). The following fluorescently labeled primers were designed with the F1247-coreEco sequence plus two discriminant nucleotides at the 3' end: F1598-EcoCA-FAM, F1599-EcoCC-HEX, F1601-EcoCG-HEX, and F1915-EcoCT-FAM for selective nucleotides CA, CC, CG and CT, respectively. Selective PCRs were performed using a touchdown procedure consisting of denaturation at 94°C for 20 s, annealing at temperatures ranging from 66 to 57°C (the temperature was decreased 1°C per cycle) for 30 s, and elongation at 72°C for 2 min for 10 cycles, followed by a conventional PCR consisting of denaturation at 94°C for 20 s, annealing at 56°C for 30 s, and elongation at 72°C for 2 min for 20 cycles.

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TABLE 2. AFLP oligonucleotides used to construct adaptors and to prime PCRs

The total selective PCR products (10 µl) were purified on a Sephadex G-50 column (Amersham Biosciences, Orsay, France) before separation of the AFLP fragments by electrophoresis with a capillary sequencer (MegaBACE 1000; Amersham Pharmacia Biotech Europe, Orsay, France). The device automatically calculated the length of the fluorescent fragments by comparison to the MegaBACE ET-900-R size standard (Amersham). A genetic profiler (model 1.5; Molecular Dynamics Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.) was used to display the results and to export data in text format. Data were transferred to a spreadsheet with the program Thresholdfilter 1.3 (Yann Legros, Amersham). A threshold fluorescence value of 200 arbitrary units was generally used to eliminate the background before subsequent bioinformatic treatment.

For each strain, experiments under the four AFLP conditions (EcoRI+CA/MseI+0, EcoRI+CC/MseI+0, EcoRI+CT/MseI+0, and EcoRI+CG/MseI+0) were performed in duplicate. AFLP fragments were coded as in the following example: the CA109 fragment corresponded to a 109-bp fragment experimentally obtained under the Eco+CA/Mse+0 AFLP conditions.

Predictive AFLP.
A predictive AFLP analysis was performed with the complete genome sequence of C58 essentially as previously described by Mougel et al. (24) by simulating digestion with EcoRI and with MseI and then selecting restriction fragments based on the selective nucleotides added to selective primers. The lengths of the predicted AFLP fragments corresponded to the lengths of the restriction fragments plus 27 bp for the adaptors.

Phylogenomic analyses.
The LecPCR and Align2 programs were used to transform raw data into tabular binary data, and the DistAFLP program was used to calculate the evolutionary genome divergence (rate of nucleotide substitution) and current genome mispairing (CGM) essentially as described by Mougel et al. (24), except that fragments were placed in length classes for genomic species instead of classes for all the strains together, which was done in the previous study. The LecPCR, Align2, and DistAFLP programs are accessible at http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/ADE-4/microb/. Dendrograms were calculated with the Neighbor/UPGMA module of the PHYLIP package (12) using evolutionary genome divergence data as distance data and were displayed with NJ-Plot (http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/software/njplot.html). Bootstrap values were calculated by using the bootstrap option of DistAFLP and the Neighbor/UPGMA and Consense modules of the PHYLIP package.

Determination of common AFLP fragments.
A newly developed program, AlignK (http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/ADE-4/microb/), was used to align fragment patterns in length classes in a spreadsheet by gathering fragments with the same length ± 0.5 bp in the same line (one line for each fragment length class). After visual correction, the program calculated how frequent a fragment of a given length was, its average length, and the length standard deviation. The program was used to determine the AFLP fragments common to all members of the same species.

DNA-DNA hybridization.
Native DNAs were labeled in vitro by random priming with tritium-labeled nucleotides using the Megaprime DNA labeling systems (Amersham Biosciences). DNA-DNA hybridization was performed by using the S1 nuclease-trichloroacetic acid method (7, 16). Reassociation was performed at 70°C in 0.42 M NaCl. DNA-DNA hybridizations were carried out using labeled DNAs from strains TT111, C58, and B6^T.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
Experimental AFLP analyses.
The average numbers of fragments per AFLP pattern obtained using the EcoRI+CA/MseI+0, EcoRI+CC/MseI+0, EcoRI+CT/MseI+0, and EcoRI+ CG/MseI+0 conditions were 69, 45, 76, and 66 fragments, respectively. The phylogenomic analysis separated groups of strains on long branches supported by significant bootstrap values (>80%) (Fig. 1). These clusters are in accordance with genomic species assignments described previously (29). The maximum CGM value obtained for two strains in a genomic species was 10.8% (for Zutra 3/1 and RV3 in genomic species G7) (Fig. 1). The three major genomic species, genomic species G1, G4, and G8, exhibited comparable high levels of diversity; the greatest CGM values within these genomic species were 9.7%, 9.7%, and 9.0%, respectively, and the average CGM values were 7.5%, 6.5%, and 7.2%, respectively. A relevant finding is that the smallest CGM value found for comparisons of genomic species was 15.2% (for strain Zutra 3/1 in genomic species G7 and strain Hayward 0362 in genomic species G9) (Fig. 1).

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FIG. 1. Phylogenomic relatedness of Agrobacterium strains, species, and genomic species, calculated by the neighbor-joining method using pooled data for four AFLP conditions. The values are significant bootstrap values (i.e., >80%) obtained from 100 data resamplings. The unit of evolutionary distance is the rate of nucleotide substitution per nucleotide site calculated with DistAFLP.

Confidence interval for AFLP fragment length.
The AFLP fragment lengths provided by the sequencer were subject to variation due to experimental conditions and sequence differences. The rrs gene was used to estimate the variation in fragment length, because fragment lengths are identical within all members of a given genomic species but there are small sequence differences between genomic species G1, G4, and G8 (24). The lengths of two fragments (CA109 and CG221) flanking the EcoRI site occurring in the rrs genes of genomic species G1, G4, and G8 strains (accession numbers of reference strains, AJ389895, AJ389904, and AJ012209, respectively) were studied within and between genomic species. The lengths and sequences of the CG221 fragment, predicted from rrs sequences, were identical in all members of the three genomic species. The lengths of the experimental rrs fragments were 221.40 ± 0.04, 221.38 ± 0.03, and 221.38 ± 0.04 bp (averages ± standard deviations) in genomic species G1, G4, and G8, respectively (Table 3), indicating that the lengths of fragments with identical sequences could differ by a maximum of 0.10 bp (P < 0.05). The sequence of the rrs CA109 fragment differed by four nucleotides at positions 522, 523, 533, and 534 in genomic species G8 and G1 or G4 (5% mispairing), but the fragments were identical within genomic species. The lengths of the experimental rrs fragments were 108.37 ± 0.05, 108.40 ± 0.02, and 107.95 ± 0.05 bp (averages ± standard deviations) for genomic species G1, G4, and G8, respectively (Table 3), indicating that there was a difference of about 0.60 bp (P < 0.05) between the estimated lengths of experimental fragments having about 5% different nucleotides. Taking this uncertainty into account and considering that the maximum level of whole-genome mispairing within a genomic species is greater (9 to 10%) (see above), we assumed that the estimated lengths of fragments originating from the same genome region in different strains could differ by 1 bp (i.e., average length ± 0.5 bp).

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TABLE 3. AFLP fragments common to all members of genomic species G1, G4, and G8

AFLP markers of genomic species G1, G4, and G8.
The fragments common to all members of a genomic species were determined by aligning the AFLP patterns of all members of the genomic species with AlignK (Table 3). The total numbers of common fragments for the four AFLP conditions were 57, 55, and 57 for genomic species G1, G4, and G8, respectively. The genomic markers of a genomic species were generally found to be common only to members of that genomic species, even if they could be found in some strains belonging to another genomic species (data not shown). Thus, combinations of these genomic markers could be used as discriminative characteristics for genomic species. Nevertheless, as expected from the rrs sequence analysis, predicted fragments CA109 and CG221 flanking the EcoRI site found in the rrs genes of genomic species G1, G4, and G8 strains were detected in all members of the three genomic species, and the sizes of the fragments detected ranged from 108.00 to 108.47 bp for CA109 and from 221.38 to 221.40 bp for CG221 (Table 3). Three other fragments, CC89 (range, 89.22 to 89.48 bp), CG56 (range, 55.70 to 55.90 bp), and CT590 (range, 589.69 to 590.46 bp), were found to be common to the three genomic species, and some other fragments were common to pairs of genomic species. Moreover, the two putative rrs fragments (CA109 and CG221) and the CT590 fragment were found in all biovar 1 members, while fragments CC89 and CG56 were common to most but not all biovar 1 members (CC89 was not found in genomic species G3 and G9; CG56 was not found in genomic species G2 and G9). Thus, the presence of all five of these fragments is unique for genomic species G1, G4, G5, G6, G7, and G8, and these fragments did not occur outside biovar 1, while a combination of CT590, CA109, and CG221 was found both in all biovar 1 members and also in A. vitis (data not shown).

An attempt was made to identify fragments conserved in biovar 1 by predictive AFLP. This investigation revealed that CA109 and CG221 probably originated from the four rrs copies, ATU0053, ATU2547, ATU3937, and ATU4180, since there are four ribosomal operons in C58 with identical rrs copies (15, 41). The other conserved fragments, CG56, CC89, and CT590, presumptively originated from ATU0223, ATU2571, and a region spanning the ATU3980 and ATU3981 genes, respectively. Remarkably, ATU0223, ATU2571, and ATU3980 are not distributed at random over the genomes but are located in the vicinity of the ATU0053, ATU2547, and ATU3937 rrs gene copies at 170 kbp, 25 kbp, and 53 kbp, respectively.

Confirmation of AFLP species identification by DNA-DNA hybridization.
Eight strains isolated from plants or soil samples whose classification in genomic species was not previously determined were used in this study. The AFLP patterns of these strains unambiguously placed them in genomic species G1, G4, or G8. The AFLP placement of six of them (CFBP 5622, CFBP 2517, CFBP 5771, CFBP 5621, CFBP 5627, and J-07) in genomic species G1, G4, and G8 was confirmed a posteriori by DNA-DNA hybridizations performed with TT111, B6^T, and C58, respectively (Table 4).

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TABLE 4. Genomic species assignment of environmental agrobacteria by DNA-DNA hybridization

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 
The AFLP methodology clearly delineates all genomic species presently known in the genus Agrobacterium when enough AFLP conditions are used to obtain clusters supported by significant bootstrap values (24). Some genomic species, such as genomic species G7 and G9, display great infraspecies diversity. The DNA-DNA hybridization values for these genomic species are close to or even less than 70%, and to ascertain the genomic species status, it is necessary to verify that differences in melting temperatures for members of a species are less than 5°C (29). These highly diverse genomic species were significantly separated from their close neighbors if up to four AFLP conditions were used (bootstrap values, >80%), while only one AFLP condition was enough to correctly place a strain in a less diverse genomic species (data not shown). In all cases, the AFLP approach rapidly and unambiguously determined the genomic species status of agrobacteria isolated from various biotopes, as well as strains deposited in international bacterial collections. Moreover, the results were unambiguously confirmed by further DNA-DNA hybridizations for six environmental strains. As a consequence, AFLP has been proven to be reliable and has rendered DNA-DNA hybridization unnecessary for placing environmental agrobacteria into genomic species.

In spite of the power of AFLP for species identification, AFLP data are not easily compared by phylogenetic methods when they are obtained with different sequencers (gel versus capillary; different molecular weight markers; different data extraction software). It would be easier to identify a species by a set of well-defined molecular markers. In order to facilitate the analysis and to examine the universal applicability of the method, AFLP fragments common to all members of a genomic species were determined for the three major genomic species of agrobacteria, genomic species G1, G4, and G8 (Table 2). We verified that most of these "species-specific" markers were present in AFLP profiles obtained previously with another sequencer and with smaller sets of strains (http://pbil.univ-lyon1.fr/ADE-4/microb/IJSEM2001), provided that a larger confidence interval for the fragment size determination was used since different molecular weight ladders were used. Thus, the combination of the fragments listed Table 3 is sufficient to place an isolate into genomic species G1, G4, or G8. Thus, we describe here a reliable and portable method for identifying the three major Agrobacterium genomic species even in the absence of databases and phylogenomic analyses. With the present list of "species-specific" markers, this approach is accessible to all laboratories without a need for phylogenetic analyses.

At higher taxonomic levels, only five AFLP fragments, including two fragments of rrs, were found to be common to all or almost all biovar 1 members. This small number of markers is not enough to allow significant and robust identification of a new isolate as a member of biovar 1 by AFLP. Nevertheless, these conserved fragments likely originated from the core genome of biovar 1 strains and are good candidates for definition of markers for sequence-based approaches, such as PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis or MLSA. Identification of the fragments conserved in biovar 1 was attempted. We used predictive AFLP because fragments detected by fluorescent AFLP (which provides only virtual images of fragments) are difficult to clone and sequence. Remarkably, all the biovar 1 markers were presumptively found to originate from genes located close to the ribosomal operons. Housekeeping genes, such as recA, gyrB, groEL, or mutS, which are frequently used in MLSA, were found in the vicinity of the ribosomal operons. This confirmed that AFLP markers readily tag the core genome of biovar 1 strains and that standard housekeeping genes are the most relevant genes for MLSA.

One of the advantages of AFLP is that it measures diversity by estimating maximal and average current genome mispairing of populations (23). This provided a minimal set of strains which displayed the highest diversity in a given species and which were the strains that were best suited for determining the most conserved markers in a given species. Using strains from various collections, the three main genomic species of agrobacteria in biovar 1 displayed infraspecies CGM values of 9 to 9.7%, which were close to the maximum value found in another genomic species in biovar 1 (10.8%). As a result, the list of markers in Table 3 is likely to be "species specific," and the markers tag the core genomes of the genomic species.

Current genome mispairing values are key parameters for species delineation as they are highly correlated to the data obtained by the conventional DNA-DNA hybridization procedure (24). In the present study, the maximum CGM value found for two strains in a genomic species was 10.8%, while the smallest CGM value found for two genomic species was 15.2%. This emphasizes the gap in the distribution of genome divergence values on which the current genomic species definition is based. These results establish the CGM threshold values that could be used to delineate genomic species. The values are actually slightly different but likely much more accurate than the values reported previously (24), because they were calculated by using a more relevant procedure for assignment of AFLP fragments to fragment length classes.

In order to determine whether the CGM threshold values determined for Agrobacterium spp. are relevant for delineating genomic species in other taxa, it is necessary to perform extensive studies before the method can be generalized. However, as an indication, the minimal interspecies CGM value for agrobacteria as determined by AFLP (15.2%) appears to be close to the value for whole-genome mispairing estimated by Vulic et al. (39) using DNA-DNA hybridization data for Escherichia coli and Salmonella enterica (16%). These two species are very closely related but are sexually isolated, as measured by the dramatic drop in the rate of homologous recombination within and between species (39). This strengthens the idea that the genome divergence threshold, which delineates genomic species, including agrobacterial genomic species (70% for DNA-DNA, corresponding to 15% genome mispairing), is a critical parameter of the sexual isolation of bacterial species.

In this study, we developed an original method to place rapidly an agrobacterial strain into one of the three major Agrobacterium genomic species (genomic species G1, with reference strain TT111; genomic species G4 or bona fide A. tumefaciens, including type strain B6; and genomic species G8, including sequenced strain C58) by determining lists of common AFLP markers detected in all strains of the three species. This procedure is thought to allow high-throughput identification and genomic species classification of agrobacteria isolated from field samples.

 
We thank Anne Willems and Moniek Gillis of the Laboratorium voor Microbiologie, Ghent University, and Martine Kedidjian of Institut Pasteur, who kindly provided strains for this study; Marie-André Poirier for technical help; and Tim Vogel for reading the manuscript and providing suggestions. AFLP analyses were performed using the sequencing facilities of the DTAMB at the Université Claude Bernard-Lyon 1.

Perrine Portier received a Ph.D. grant from MENRT. This work was financially supported by a personal grant from INRA-DSPE to Xavier Nesme.

 
* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Ecologie Microbienne, Université Claude Bernard-Lyon 1, Domaine scientifique de La Doua, 16 rue Raphaël Dubois, 69622 Villeurbanne cedex, France. Phone: 33 4 72 44 82 89. Fax: 33 4 72 43 12 23. E-mail: nesme{at}biomserv.univ-lyon1.fr.

Published ahead of print on 25 August 2006.

Present address: INRA, Dijon, France.

Top Abstract Introduction Materials and Methods Results Discussion References

 

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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, November 2006, p. 7123-7131, Vol. 72, No. 11
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