Molecular analysis of Mycobacterium chelonae-M. abscessus group isolates without conclusive species identification

• Grant number: 14/00746-5
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships abroad - Research Internship - Doctorate
• Start date: April 01, 2014
• End date: June 30, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Biological Sciences - Microbiology
• Principal Investigator: Sylvia Luisa Pincherle Cardoso Leão
• Grantee: Christiane Lourenço Nogueira
• Supervisor: Anandi Martin
• Host Institution: Escola Paulista de Medicina (EPM). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus São Paulo. São Paulo , SP, Brazil
• Institution abroad: Ghent University (UGent), Belgium
• Associated to the scholarship: 12/13763-0 - Taxonomic characterization of mycobacteria belonging to Mycobacterium chelonae-M.abscessus group without conclusive species identification, BP.DR

Abstract

In the PhD project of Christiane Lourenço Nogueira (FAPESP 2012/13763-0) we are exploring the internal variability of M. chelonae-M. abscessus group isolates without conclusive species identification. This variability was identified by Dr Françoise Portaels (Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium) during the development of a commercial test, INNO-LiPA® (Innogenetics, Bélgica), that is a reverse hybridization DNA probe assay. A set of isolates was kindly provided by Dr Françoise Portaels for this study. Additional isolates from Brazil and United States were included.This project proposes a four months internship at University of Ghent, Belgium, in order to perform DNA-DNA hybridization, the gold standard assay for species taxonomic delimitation. This assay will be performed with the reference strains (M. abscessus ATCC 19977, M. chelonae ATCC 35752, "M. bolletii" CIP 108541, "M. franklinii" DNS 45524, M. immunogenum CIP 106684, "M. massiliense" CCUG 48898, M. salmoniphilum ATCC 13758) and five isolates that are phenotipically and genotypically similar, in order to characterize a new species of the M. chelonae-M. abscessus group. DNA from selected isolates will be extracted for whole genome sequencing, in a new collaboration with researchers from University of Ghent. (AU)