Characterization of leptospira isolates from animals and humans: phylogenetic analysis identifies the prevalence of intermediate species in India

• Published in: SpringerPlus Vol. 2; no. 1; p. 362
• Main Authors: Balamurugan, Vinayagamurthy, Gangadhar, Nidaghatta L, Mohandoss, Nagalingam, Thirumalesh, Sushma Rahim Assadi, Dhar, Moushumi, Shome, Rajeswari, Krishnamoorthy, Paramanandham, Prabhudas, Krishnamsetty, Rahman, Habibur
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Cham Springer International Publishing 30-07-2013; Springer Nature B.V; BioMed Central Ltd
• Subjects: Biomedical and Life Sciences; Humanities and Social Sciences; multidisciplinary; Science; Science (multidisciplinary); Human; Characterization; Intermediate species; Animals; Prevalence; Leptospira
• ISSN: 2193-1801; 2193-1801
• DOI: 10.1186/2193-1801-2-362

In this study, 191 culture isolates were recovered from suspected samples of animals and humans in Ellinghausen McCullough Johnson and Harris (EMJH) medium and assessed for its morphological features by dark field microscopy. Extracted DNA from individual culture was subjected to different PCR assays for identification and characterization of leptospira. Out of 99 positive leptospira cultures, 52 pathogenic leptospira isolates were characterized at species level by using partial RNA polymerase β-subunit (
rpoB)
gene sequences. Phylogenetic analysis of the nucleotide sequences revealed that 30, 8, and 14 isolates belong to
L. borgpetersenii / L. interrogans
,
L. kirschneri
, and
Leptospira
intermediate species, respectively. Based on analysis of 99 leptospira isolates, the prevalent
Leptospira
species were
L. borgpetersenii
or
L. interrogans
(30.30%),
L. kirschneri
(8%) and
Leptospira
intermediate species (14.14%) in animals and humans. To the best of authors knowledge, this is the first study to use
rpoB
gene nucleotide sequence based phylogenetic analysis to identify/detect
Leptospira
intermediate species (
L. wolffii
) in animals and humans in India. Hence, the prevalence of this species will surely emphasize the importance of consideration of
Leptospira
intermediate species and formulate a way for further studies especially in understanding the newly emerging
Leptospira
in animals and humans and to combat the problem associated with the disease conditions.