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Lack of continuity between Cronobacter biotypes and species as determined using multilocus sequence typing
Susan Joseph1, Sumyya Hariri, Stephen J Forsythe
1Pathogen Research Centre, School of Science and Technology, Nottingham Trent University, Clifton Lane, Nottingham NG11 8NS, UK.
Cronobacter biotyping is unreliable for species identification. Most biotype variants were shared across the genus, failing to accurately identify Cronobacter species.
Area of Science:
- Microbiology
- Food Safety
- Bacterial Taxonomy
Background:
- Cronobacter species are opportunistic foodborne pathogens.
- Accurate identification of Cronobacter is crucial for public health and food safety.
- Traditional biotyping methods are widely used but their accuracy requires validation.
Purpose of the Study:
- To evaluate the accuracy of the Cronobacter biotyping scheme.
- To compare biotyping with a more precise method, 7-loci multilocus sequence typing (MLST).
Main Methods:
- Comparison of results from Cronobacter biotyping.
- Utilized 7-loci multilocus sequence typing (MLST) as a reference standard.
- Analyzed the uniqueness and shared nature of biotype variants across seven Cronobacter species.
Main Results:
- Biotyping demonstrated limited accuracy in species-level identification.
- Only 17 out of 31 (54.8%) biotype variants were unique to a single Cronobacter species.
- The remaining biotype variants were found across multiple Cronobacter species, indicating poor discriminatory power.
Conclusions:
- The Cronobacter biotyping scheme is not sufficiently accurate for reliable species-level identification.
- 7-loci MLST provides a more accurate method for differentiating Cronobacter species.
- Relying solely on biotyping may lead to misidentification of Cronobacter species in food safety and clinical settings.
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