AFLP fingerprinting of Colombian Clostridium spp strains, multivariate data analysis and its taxonomical implications.

Amplified Fragment Length Polymorphism (AFLP) analysis was used for characterising 13 native Colombian Clostridium spp strains. The DNA extraction method was optimised and the use of cetyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (CTAB) and sodium chloride (NaCl) was incorporated. All strains could be typed in these conditions. The AFLP profiles obtained were submitted to multivariate analysis and compared with previous pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) results. The results suggested that the set of native strains could correspond to two new species different to those having been described to date. It is proposed that DNA-DNA hybridisation analysis should be done to produce complementary information for describing the new species.