Ct. Shivannavar et al., DETERMINATION OF MYCOBACTERIAL PHYLOGENY ON THE BASIS OF IMMUNOLOGICAL RELATEDNESS OF SUPEROXIDE DISMUTASES, International journal of systematic bacteriology, 46(4), 1996, pp. 1164-1169
Sixteen strains of cultivable mycobacteria were grown in Sauton's medi
um, and Mycobacterium leprae was purified from armadillo liver. Cell e
xtracts were prepared from log-phase growths of each of the cultivable
mycobacterial strains, Superoxide dismutase (SOD) enzyme was purified
from all cultivable mycobacterial strains included in the study, and
antibodies against purified SOD enzyme were raised in rabbits, Immunol
ogical distances (ImDs) between these anti-SOD antibodies and SOD anti
gens were determined by a previously described immunoprecipitation met
hod and by a recently developed enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELI
SA) technique. The reciprocal ImDs among mycobacterial strains were co
nstant, reproducible and consistent by these two methods. An evolution
ary tree was constructed on the basis of estimated ImDs, Except for M.
duvalii and M. terrae, slowly and rapidly growing mycobacterial speci
es appeared to be separately grouped bg:this analysis. Rapid growers c
lustered into a group which is near that of some slow-growing mycobact
eria. M. avium falls almost in the middle of the evolutionary tree and
the position of M. leprae was found to be between those of M. avium a
nd BZ bovis BCG, Measurement of immunological relatedness of SODs prov
ides an alternative system with which to study the taxonomical related
ness among mycobacteria.