Usefulness of the ID32 staph system and a method based on rRNA gene restriction site polymorphism analysis for species and subspecies identification of staphylococcal clinical isolates.

The usefulness of the ID32 Staph System and a method based on rRNA gene restriction site polymorphism was evaluated by the study of 42 staphylococcal clinical isolates phenotypically difficult to identify. The ID32 Staph micromethod and the genomic method are adapted for recognition of 27 and 31 staphylococcal taxa, respectively. The genomic method is based on a Dice analysis of the hybridization patterns obtained by cutting the cellular DNA either with EcoRI or with HindIII and by probing with pBA2, containing the Bacillus subtilis gene encoding 16S rRNA, labeled either with [alpha-32P]dCTP or with acetylaminofluorene. This study showed that the nonradioactive labeling provided a better resolution of the hybridizing bands than radioactive labeling. Of the 42 isolates selected, only 22 could be assigned to a staphylococcal species by the ID32 Staph System, whereas 35 could be identified by the genomic method. This latter method also enabled the screening of three unclassified isolates having hybridization patterns more closely related to each other than to any of the 31 staphylococcal taxa investigated. These three isolates could belong to a staphylococcal taxon not yet described.