Restriction Profiling of 23S Microheterogenic Ribosomal Repeats for Detection and Characterizing of E. coli and Their Clonal, Pathogenic, and Phylogroups

Correlating ribosomal microheterogenicity with unique restriction profiles can prove to be an efficacious and cost-effective approach compared with sequencing for microbial identification. An attempt to peruse restriction profiling of 23S ribosomal assemblage was ventured; digestion patterns with Bfa I discriminated E. coli from its colony morphovars, while Hae III profiles assisted in establishing distinct clonal groups. Among the gene pool of 399 ribosomal sequences extrapolated from 57 E. coli genomes, varying degree of predominance (I > III > IV > II) of Hae III pattern was observed. This was also corroborated in samples collected from clinical, commensal, and environmental origin. K-12 and its descendants showed type I pattern whereas E. coli-B and its descendants exhibited type IV, both of these patterns being exclusively present in E. coli. A near-possible association between phylogroups and Hae III profiles with presumable correlation between the clonal groups and different pathovars was established. The generic nature, conservation, and barcode gap of 23S rRNA gene make it an ideal choice and substitute to 16S rRNA gene, the most preferred region for molecular diagnostics in bacteria.