Es. Drazek et al., CHARACTERIZATION AND PRESUMPTIVE IDENTIFICATION OF HELICOBACTER-PYLORI ISOLATES FROM RHESUS-MONKEYS, Journal of clinical microbiology, 32(7), 1994, pp. 1799-1804
We characterized 38 Helicobacter isolates, including 22 from gastric b
iopsy samples obtained from 14 rhesus monkeys and single isolates from
16 monkeys in a different colony. Biochemical profiles of these isola
tes were nearly identical to that of Helicobacter pylori ATCC 43504. R
estriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis indicated that
each infected monkey harbored one to four strains. The 17 RFLP types
found among these 22 isolates differed from all seven RFLPs found amon
g the other 16 isolates. Thus, monkeys within a given colony are more
likely to be infected by Helicobacter isolates with the same or a simi
lar RFLP than are monkeys from different colonies. A 16S rRNA gene was
amplified by PCR and cloned from the Helicobacter isolate from rhesus
monkey 85D08. Ribotyping with this probe demonstrated less diversity
among isolates from rhesus monkeys than was reported among isolates of
H. pylori from humans, as did RFLP analysis of a PCR fragment of the
ureA-ureB gene cluster. The DNA sequence of the cloned 16S rRNA gene w
as determined and compared with sequences reported for H. pylori and o
ther Helicobacter species. Our analysis of 127 nucleotides (correspond
ing with residues 1240 to 1366 of the Escherichia coli 16S rRNA gene)
indicated that the Helicobacter isolate from monkey 85D08 was 99.2 to
100% homologous to isolates of H, pylori from humans but only 83.5 to
96.9% homologous with other Helicobacter species in this region of the
16S rRNA gene. These data provide strong support for the presumptive
identification of these isolates as H. pylori.