Molecular typing and exopolysaccharide biosynthesis of Burkholderia cepacia isolates from a Portuguese Cystic Fibrosis Center

This work describes the first epidemiological survey of Burkholderia cepaci a involved in pulmonary infections among the Portuguese population with cys tic fibrosis (CF) who attended the major CF treatment Center in Lisbon at S ta. Maria Hospital from 1995 to the end of 1997. The characterization of th e genomic relatedness of the isolates was based on the analysis of their ri obpatterns (with EcoRI) followed by construction of a ribotype-based phylog enetic tree. This study was complemented with macrorestriction fragment ana lysis by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. After optimization of the solid growth medium, we found that exopolysaccharide (EPS) production by B. cepac ia CF isolates is not as rare a phenomenon as was thought before; indeed, 7 0% of the isolates examined were EPS producers.