A COMPARATIVE STUDY BETWEEN A NUMERICAL AND RAPD-PCR METHODS FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF SOME STREPTOMYCETE STRAINS

Abstract

Streptomyces is a gram-positive bacterium that undergoes morphological differentiation.
To taxonomy or classify the streptomycetes according to their properties some systems have been
proposed. In this study, a comparative study between a numerical method and the random amplified
polymorphic DNA-polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) technology for identification of 19
streptomycetes belonging to different series color (gray, 4 strains; red, 8 strains divided into three
groups; white, 3 strains; violet, 2 strains and yellow, 2 strains) was carried out. Results showed that
units of utilization of carbon sources (UCS) were effective for some Streptomyces strains. As
expected the violet Streptomyces strains (Si-9 and Si-1) of group 5 showed the lowest total units.
Similarity differences based on the numerical and RAPD-PCR analyses of the four gray
Streptomyces strains (group 1: ST10, ST11, ST12 and ST13) were ranged from 1.7 to 9.5%. The
phylogenetic tree reflected the relationship between the identified Streptomyces strains (group 3:
ST1, ST2 and ST3), as the strains were arranged as follows: RF/C-/SM; RF/C+/SM and
RA/C+/SM. Interestingly, the similarity between the phylophenetic and phylogenetic trees of the
Streptomyces strains (ST08, ST14 and ST15) was 100% and strains were organized in a compatible
situation with their characters. Data also showed reasonable differences (9.5% and 6.8%) between
the applied analysis methods in case of Streptomyces strains of groups 5 and 7, respectively.
Finally, the phylophentic data of this study provided a basis for reduction of the number of
Streptomyces species now known to occur in nature.