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ARS Home » Northeast Area » Ithaca, New York » Robert W. Holley Center for Agriculture & Health » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #135013
Title: THE ABILITY OF LYSOZYME AND 2-DEOXYGLUCOSE TO DIFFERENTIATE HUMAN AND BOVINE STREPTOCOCCUS BOVIS STRAINS

Author
item KURTOVIC, AMINA - CORNELL UNIVERSITY
item JARVIS, GRAEME - CORNELL UNIVERSITY
item Russell, James

Submitted to: Journal of Clinical Microbiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 5/9/2003
Publication Date: 9/22/2003
Citation: KURTOVIC, A., JARVIS, G.N., RUSSELL, J.B. THE ABILITY OF LYSOZYME AND 2-DEOXYGLUCOSE TO DIFFERENTIATE HUMAN AND BOVINE STREPTOCOCCUS BOVIS STRAINS. JOURNAL OF CLINICAL MICROBIOLOGY. 2002. v. 41. p. 3951-3954.

Interpretive Summary: Streptococcus bovis is a gram positive, facultative anaerobe that causes ruminal acidosis in cattle as well as meningitis, septicemia, and endocarditis in humans. In the 1980's, many lactic acid bacteria were reclassified, but the reclassification of S. bovis was problematic. Whether bovine S. bovis can cause human disease or conversely if human strains can colonize the rumen has yet to be determined, and such experiments are not easily performed. Animal models for human S. bovis infections have not been developed, and the rumen is a highly complex ecosystem that is inhabited by as many as a 100 species of different bacteria. Our experiments indicated that human and bovine S. bovis strains had different genetic (BOX-PCR patterns) and physiological characteristics (2-deoxyglucose sensitivity). Research on gut bacteria has the potential to decrease the cost of cattle produce and human disease.

Technical Abstract: Human (n = 14) and bovine (n = 30) Streptococcus bovis strains obtained from different subjects and cattle had similar growth characteristics if glucose was the energy source (doubling times of less than 30 min, yield of 10 mg protein mol glucose-1). Human and bovine strains sometimes had different patterns of substrate utilization (starch, mannitol, lactose, and raffinose), but these differences were not a reliable diagnostic tool. Bovine strains were initially more sensitive to lysozyme than the human strains, but bovine strains that were transferred repeatedly with sub-lethal doses of lysozyme adapted and in many cases became as resistant as human strains. Human strains did not lyse significantly when 2-deoxyglucose (2DG) was added to the growth medium, but 2DG promoted the stationary phase lysis of bovine strains. Because the bovine strains did not adapt to 2DG, sensitivity to 2DG seemed to provide a physiological basis for differentiating human and bovine strains. When the 16S rDNA of human and bovine strains was amplified and treated with HaeIII and HhaI, 5 fragments were always observed, but PCR of repetitive DNA sequences (BOX-PCR) indicated that bovine and human strains were genetically diverse. Only two of the human strains grouped with bovine strains, and one of these strains was a bacterium that grew slowly on glucose. Based on these results, it appears that bovine and human strains are phenotypically and genetically distinct.