[ODP5B] b. Methods in Detection and Identification of Clinical Microbes

[ODP-096] Identification of Tsukamurella inchonensis isolated from septic pulmonary emboli (SPE) patient

○I Putu Bayu Mayura¹, Kazuyoshi Gotoh¹, Takehiko Mima¹, Yumiko Yamamoto¹, Kenji Yokota², Osamu Matsushita¹, Hideharu Hagiya³ (¹Dept. Bacteriol., Grad Sch Med, Dent and Pharm Sci., Okayama Univ, ²Grad. Sch. Health Sci., Okayama Univ., ³Dept. Gen Med, Grad Sch Med, Dent and Pharm Sci., Okayama Univ)

Tsukamurella is an environmental, opportunistic pathogen that can cause pulmonary-, cutaneous infection, and meningitis. To date is difficult to distinguish Tsukamurella among related genera, e.g., Nocardia, Rhodococcus, and Gordonia due to sharing similar phenotypic properties, therefore molecular methods are necessary. In fact, 16S rRNA gene sequence analysis successfully distinguish Tsukamurella from another similar genus however, it uncertainly differentiates among Tsukamurella species. Thus, alternative gene targets, such as ssrA, secA, rpoB, and groEL were developed to correctly identified them. Herein, we encountered Tsukamurella inchonensis with septic pulmonary emboli (SPE), which is the first in the literature. A yellowish, rough, and fringed edges colony was detected as Gram-positive rods. However, matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight mass spectrometry failed to identify. The 16S rRNA gene sequence suggested the organism to be Tsukamurella species. In consequence of low resonance of species-level differentiation, we employed groEL, resulting in 100% matching (753/753 bps) with Tsukamurella inchonensis NCTC 10741 (GenBank accession no. LR131273.1), which has been incorrectly registered in the database as a Tsukamurella paurometabola. Among Tsukamurella infection molecular diagnosis of the pathogens requires for identification of species.