Genetic diversity analysis of Leuconostoc mesenteroides from Korean vegetables and food products by multilocus sequence typing

• Published in: Applied microbiology and biotechnology 2018-06, Vol.102 (11), p.4853-4861
• Main Authors: Sharma, Anshul, Kaur, Jasmine, Lee, Sulhee, Park, Young-Seo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Applied Genetics and Molecular Biotechnology; Bacteria; Bacterial genetics; Biomedical and Life Sciences; Biotechnology; Correlation analysis; DNA-directed RNA polymerase; Evolution; Food; Food Microbiology; Food products; Food sources; Genes; Genetic analysis; Genetic aspects; Genetic diversity; Genetic Variation; Lactobacillus; Leuconostoc mesenteroides; Leuconostoc mesenteroides - classification; Leuconostoc mesenteroides - genetics; Life Sciences; Methods; Microbial Genetics and Genomics; Microbiology; Multilocus Sequence Typing; Phylogeny; Recombination; Republic of Korea; Sequence Analysis, DNA; Vegetables; Vegetables - microbiology
• ISSN: 0175-7598; 1432-0614
• DOI: 10.1007/s00253-018-8942-4

In the present study, 35 Leuconostoc mesenteroides strains isolated from vegetables and food products from South Korea were studied by multilocus sequence typing (MLST) of seven housekeeping genes ( atpA , groEL , gyrB , pheS , pyrG , rpoA , and uvrC ). The fragment sizes of the seven amplified housekeeping genes ranged in length from 366 to 1414 bp. Sequence analysis indicated 27 different sequence types (STs) with 25 of them being represented by a single strain indicating high genetic diversity, whereas the remaining 2 were characterized by five strains each. In total, 220 polymorphic nucleotide sites were detected among seven housekeeping genes. The phylogenetic analysis based on the STs of the seven loci indicated that the 35 strains belonged to two major groups, A (28 strains) and B (7 strains). Split decomposition analysis showed that intraspecies recombination played a role in generating diversity among strains. The minimum spanning tree showed that the evolution of the STs was not correlated with food source. This study signifies that the multilocus sequence typing is a valuable tool to access the genetic diversity among L. mesenteroides strains from South Korea and can be used further to monitor the evolutionary changes.