Novel Brucella Strain (BO1) Associated with a Prosthetic Breast Implant Infection

• Published in: Journal of Clinical Microbiology Vol. 46; no. 1; pp. 43 - 49
• Main Authors: De, Barun K, Stauffer, Larry, Koylass, Mark S, Sharp, Susan E, Gee, Jay E, Helsel, Leta O, Steigerwalt, Arnold G, Vega, Robert, Clark, Thomas A, Daneshvar, Maryam I, Wilkins, Patricia P, Whatmore, Adrian M
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Washington, DC American Society for Microbiology 01-01-2008; American Society for Microbiology (ASM)
• Subjects: Aged; Bacterial Typing Techniques; Bacteriology; Biological and medical sciences; Breast Implants - microbiology; Brucella; Brucella - chemistry; Brucella - classification; Brucella - genetics; Brucella - isolation & purification; Brucellosis - microbiology; Brucellosis - physiopathology; Cluster Analysis; DNA Transposable Elements; DNA, Bacterial - chemistry; DNA, Bacterial - genetics; Fatty Acids - analysis; Female; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Humans; Microbial Sensitivity Tests; Microbiology; Miscellaneous; Molecular Sequence Data; Nucleic Acid Hybridization; Ochrobactrum - genetics; Phylogeny; Prosthesis-Related Infections - microbiology; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Bacteria; Brucellaceae; Brucella; Strain
• ISSN: 0095-1137; 1098-660X; 1098-5530
• DOI: 10.1128/JCM.01494-07

We report the microbiological, biochemical, and molecular characterization of an unusual Brucella strain (BO1) isolated from a breast implant wound in a 71-year-old woman with clinical symptoms consistent with brucellosis. Initial phenotypic analysis, including biochemical and antimicrobial susceptibility testing, cellular fatty acid analysis, and molecular analysis based on DNA-DNA reassociation and the presence of multiple copies of IS711 element suggested that the isolate was a Brucella-like organism, but species determination using microbiological algorithms was unsuccessful. Furthermore, molecular data based on 16S rRNA gene sequencing and multilocus sequence analysis demonstrated that BO1 was an unusual Brucella strain and not closely related to any currently described Brucella species. However, comparison with equivalent sequences in Ochrobactrum spp. confirms that the isolate is much more closely related to Brucella than to Ochrobactrum spp., and thus the isolate likely represents an atypical and novel strain within the genus BRUCELLA: