Preliminary differentiation of food strains ofChryseobacteriumandEmpedobacterusing multilocus enzyme electrophoresis

Abstract

The multilocus enzyme electrophoresis (MEE) technique was applied to food isolates shown to belong in the generaChryseobacteriumandEmpedobacter. One hundred and thirty isolates of which 27 were reference strains, were used in this study. On the basis of the MEE data, the isolates were placed in seven electrophoretic clusters. Ninety-one isolates were clustered in Group 1 and includedChryseobacterium indologenes, Chryseobacterium gleumandChryseobacterium balustinum. Group 2 contained 10 isolates which remained unidentified but were closely associated with Group 1. Group 3 with three isolates was identified as aChryseobacterium meningosepticumgroup. Group 4 contained nine isolates which includedChryseobacterium indoltheticumandChryseobacterium scophthalmum. Groups 5 and 7 with four and eight isolates respectively, remained unidentified while Group 6 containing five isolates, was identified as theEmpedobactergroup. It was found in this study that this technique was not able to differentiate between all the species ofChryseobacteriumbut that species could be arranged in order of relatedness.