Molecular Identification of Vaginal Lactobacillus spp. Isolated from Korean Women

  • CHANG, CHUNG EUN (Department of Biological Engineering, Inha University) ;
  • SYLVIA I. PAVLOVA (Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago) ;
  • LIN TAO (Department of Oral Biology, College of Dentistry, University of Illinois at Chicago) ;
  • EUN-KI KIM (Department of Biological Engineering, Inha University, Center for Advanced Bioseparation Technology, Inha University) ;
  • SEUNG CHUL KIM (Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Ewha Woman′s University Hospital) ;
  • HYUN SHIK YUN (Department of Biological Engineering, Inha University) ;
  • JAE-SEONG SO (Department of Biological Engineering, Inha University, Center for Advanced Bioseparation Technology, Inha University)
  • Published : 2002.04.01

Abstract

Indigenous lactobacilli were isolated from vaginas of Korean women for possible use in ecological treatment of bacterial vaginosis. Vaginal swab samples were obtained from a gynecological clinic and streaked on Rogosa SL agar plates to select the most predominant lactobacilli in each sample. The preliminary identification of the isolates as lactobacilli was based on microscopic observation of Gram-positive rod-shaped cell morphology. The initial characterization was performed on 108 isolates in terms of their cell surface hydrophobicity (CSH), antimicrobial activity, and hydrogen peroxide (H₂O₂) production capability, and 10 isolates were then selected for further molecular identification. For a rapid procedure to identify lactobacilli, polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analyses of the l6S rRNA genes were applied. The 10 selected lactobacilli and 9 different reference strains of Lactobacillus spp. were characterized by PCR-RFLP where the amplified l6S rDNA was digested with 7 different restriction endonucleases prior to analysis. DNA sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene of one particular isolate, KLB 46, that had been identified as L. crispatus by the PCR-RFLP analysis, further confirmed its identity as L. crispatus.

Keywords

References

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