FASTIDIOUS GRAM-NEGATIVE BACTERIA - MEETING THE DIAGNOSTIC CHALLENGE WITH NUCLEIC-ACID ANALYSIS

The extended panorama of fastidious Gram-negative bacteria (FGNB) as o pportunistic etiological agents of infectious diseases in immunocompro mised patients is largely due to improved medical expertise and techno logy. The heightened awareness of infectious diseases due to FGNB spec ies mandates comprehensive classification and identification systems a s a basis for rapid and reliable diagnostics. The most useful approach es are combinations of nucleic acid techniques such as hybridization, genetic transformation, amplification and base sequence analysis with selected conventional criteria. Among these approaches, the widely dis tributed feature of natural competence in these organisms facilitates the use of the biological method of genetic transformation as a valuab le addition to the more common nucleic acid techniques. We describe th e development of the taxonomy of FGNB through the last four decades, w ith particular emphasis on the families Neisseriaceae, Moraxellaceae, and Pasteurellaceae.