Thirty-one isolates of bacteria causing milky disease in scarab larvae coll
ected in Central and South America were identified as Paenibacillus popilli
ae or Paenibacillus lentimorbus by use of DNA similarity analysis. The isol
ates were more similar to each other than to the North American isolates th
at are the type strains of the species. All of the bacteria of both species
produced parasporal bodies, a characteristic previously believed to be uni
que to P. popilliae. Screening of the bacteria using PCR with parasporal pr
otein primers revealed differences among the parasporal protein genes of P.
popilliae isolates and between the parasporal genes of P. popilliae and P.
lentimorbus. In contrast to P. popilliae from North America, none of the i
solates from Central and South America was resistant to vancomycin, an indi
cation of an interesting geographic distribution of the resistance genes. (
C) 2000 Academic Press.