Identification of nontuberculous mycobacteria using secA1

Abstract

With the widespread use of molecular biological techniques, Mycobacterium species were reclassified into five genera, and the number of bacterial species increased to more than 188. Thus, it is difficult to identify nontuberculous mycobacteria by conventional genetic and phenotype tests. Therefore, we attempted to identify Mycobacterium species by phylogenetic tree analysis and BLAST (Basic Local Alignment Search Tool) analysis of secA1, which is one of the housekeeping genes. As a result, it was possible to identify Mycobacterium abscessus, Mycobacterium avium, Mycobacterium fortuitum, Mycobacterium lentiflavum, Mycobacterium mageritense, Mycobacterium marseillense, and Mycobacterium ulcerans, which were difficult to identify by the DDH method or 16S rRNA gene analysis. Although there are still a few problems in the identification of Mycobacterium intracellulare, the increase in the numbers of reference and standard strains registered in GenBank has expanded its usefulness as a tool for identifying nontuberculous mycobacteria.