Genetic relationships among Neisseria species assessed by comparative enzyme electrophoresis

The electrophoretic mobilities of 12 enzymes from 19 Neisseria species (including 6 strains of N. perflava), Gemella haemolysans, Escherichia coli and Branhamella catarrhalis were characterized by polyacrylamide slab gel electrophoresis. All strains and species tested exhibited qualitatively different zymogram patterns. Species and strain relationships were quantified by pairwise comparisons of all 12 enzyme systems to obtain similarity indices; these data were subjected to numerical clustering methods to obtain groups and a phenogram. The electrophoretic classification compared favourably with those obtained by other criteria. In addition, the quantitative clustering data indicated that N. ovis and N. caviae are sufficiently different from the other Neisseria species to warrant their separation into a distinct group. These two species also lacked the characteristic NADPH-diaphorase zymogram pattern found in all the other Neisseria species. Intra-species similarity indices were generally greater than the inter-species index values. However, certain species such as N. meningitidis and N. gonorrhoeae had similarity index values in the range of inter-strain index values.