Genomic diversity of Bartonella henselae isolates from domestic cats from Japan, the USA and France by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis

The genomic DNA diversity of 27 Bartonella henselae and three B, clarridgei ae isolates from 18 domestic cats from Japan, the USA and France was invest igated by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) with NotI, AscI and SmaI restriction enzymes. A great diversity of genomic patterns was found fur al l B, henselae, but none for B, clarridgeiae isolates. The DNA size of B. he nselae and B. clarridgeiae isolates were 1.7-2.9 and 1.7 Mbp, respectively. All 13 Japanese cat isolates were identified as B. henselae type I, Furthe rmore, three of the four Japanese cats harbored genetically different B. he nselae type I isolates, suggesting for the first time co-infection with var ious type I isolates, One French cat and one American cat were co-infected with B. henselae and B . clarridgeiae. B. henselae type I and type II were mainly grouped in two d ifferent clusters by PFGE using SmaI endonuclease in the dendrogram. (C) 20 01 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.