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Appl. Environ. Microbiol. doi:10.1128/AEM.02934-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Diversity of environmental Mycobacterium isolates from hemodialysis water as shown by a multigene sequencing approach

Àrea Microbiologia, Departament de Biologia, Universitat de les Illes Balears, and Institut Mediterrani d'Estudis Avançats (CSIC-UIB), 07122 Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain; Servei de Microbiologia. Hospital Universitari Son Dureta, 07014 Palma de Mallorca, Illes Balears, Spain

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: jlalucat{at}uib.es.

	Abstract

Here we used a multigene sequencing approach for the identification and molecular typing of environmental mycobacteria of the fast growing subgroup. Strains were isolated from hemodialysis water and clinical samples. Eleven type strains of related species of the genus were also included in the study. To gain further insight into the diversity of the environmental mycobacteria, we analysed several housekeeping genes (16S rRNA, ITS1, gyrB, hsp65, recA, rpoB and sodA). No individual phylogenetic tree allowed good discrimination of all species studied. However, a concatenated and a consensus analysis, combining the genes, allowed better discrimination of each strain at the species level, and the increase in sequence size also led to greater tree robustness. This approach is useful not only for the discrimination and identification of environmental mycobacteria, but also for their molecular typing and population genetics studies. Our results demonstrate high genetic diversity of the isolates obtained, which are probably new species of the genus.