Comparative Study of PCR-Based Approaches for the Genetic Characterization of Three Strains of Acidithiobacillus caldus Isolated from Different Sites in China

Comparative study of the genetic characteristics among three Acidithiobacillus caldus strains isolated from different typical environments in China was performed using a combination of molecular methods, namely sequencing analysis of PCR-amplified 16S rRNA genes and 16S-23S rRNA gene intergenic spacers (ITS), repetitive element PCR (rep-PCR), arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) fingerprinting and random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD). Both of the 16S rRNA gene and 16S-23S rRNA gene intergenic spacers sequences of the three strains exhibited small variations, with 99.9-100%, 99.7-100% identity respectively. In contrast, according to the analysis of bacterial diversity based on rep-PCR and AP-PCR fingerprinting, they produced highly discriminatory banding patterns, and the similarity values between them varied from 61.97% to 71.64%. RAPD analysis showed that banding profiles of their genomic DNA exhibited obvious differences from each other with 53.44-75% similarity. These results suggested that in contrast to 16S rRNA genes and 16S-23S rRNA gene intergenic spacers sequencing analysis, rep-PCR, AP-PCR fingerprinting and RAPD analysis possessed higher discriminatory power in identifying these closely related strains. And they could be used as rapid and highly discriminatory typing techniques in studying bacterial diversity, especially in differentiating bacteria within Acidithiobacillus caldus.