Molecular fingerprinting of Vibrio tapetis strains using three PCR-based methods: ERIC-PCR, REP-PCR and RAPD

Abstract

Brown Ring Disease (BRD) is a bacterial disease caused by Vibrio tapetis which affects cultured clams and causes heavy economic losses. In this study, 28 V. tapetis strains isolated from 5 different hosts were intraspecifically characterized by 3 different polymerase chain reaction- (PCR-) based typing methods: enterobacteria repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC)-PCR, repetitive extra-genic palindromic (REP)-PCR and randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD)-PCR. Cluster analysis of genetic profiles obtained from these molecular techniques clearly showed the existence of 3 genetic groups strongly correlated to the host origin. The first group was formed by 23 V. tapetis strains isolated from Manila clam Ruditapes philippinarum, 1 isolated from venus clam Venerupis a urea, and 1 isolated from common cockle Cerastoderma edule, all collected from France and Spain. The second group was formed by 2 strains isolated from carpet-shell clam R. decussatus cultured in the northwest of Spain. The third group was composed of 1 strain isolated from Atlantic halibut Hippoglossus hippoglossus from the UK. We concluded that the 3 typing methods based on PCR were useful for the intraspecific typing of V. tapetis strains, and that they can potentially be used as a fast and reliable tool for epidemiological studies in the future. © Inter-Research 2006.