RIBOTYPING - A TOOL FOR TAXONOMY AND IDENTIFICATION OF THE NOCARDIA ASTEROIDS COMPLEX SPECIES

Ribotyping has been evaluated as a taxonomic tool for studying bacteri a belonging to the Nocardia asteroides complex. The probe used was obt ained by PCR from DNA extracted from the type strain Nocardia asteroid es ATCC 19247, a sequence that codes partly for 16S rRNA. Interpretati on of hybridization after EcoRI restriction of total DNA of 21 strains of the N. asteroides complex allowed for the identification of only f our different ribotypes: two related to N. asteroides sensu stricto, o ne related to N. farcinica and one related to N. nova. These results c onfirm the classification established by Tsukamura in 1982 (M. Tsukamu ra, Microbiol. Immunol. 26:1101-1119, 1982) as well as the heterogenei ty of N. asteroides sensu stricto species. Ribotyping may also provide a major identification technique for the species belonging to the N. asteroides complex.