Genomic heterogeneity of environmental and clinical aeromonads.

Thirty-three isolates of Aeromonas from environmental sources and clinical samples were tested and the results, obtained using the pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) technique, were compared with those obtained by biochemical typing. On the basis of their biochemical characteristics 31 strains was assigned to one of the recognised groups or species within the Aeromonas genus and 2 strains to the species Vibrio fluvialis. These latter were nevertheless found to belong to the Aeromonas genus on the basis of the chromosomal DNA analysis. Among the clinical isolates the biochemical analysis showed greater uniformity. A low correlation between molecular and traditional typing methods was observed with a wider heterogeneity at the genomic level. The results showed the difficulty of discriminating Aeromonas isolates by conventional biochemical methods. The genomic analysis performed by PFGE can be a more effectual technique, which can be used for epidemiological and ecological studies of the microorganisms belonging to the Aeromonas group.