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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article
Front. Microbiol.
Sec. Infectious Agents and Disease
Volume 16 - 2025 |
doi: 10.3389/fmicb.2025.1514643
The results of Polymerase Chain Reaction and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry contra phenotypic distinction between Klebsiella pneumoniae and Klebsiella oxytoca
Provisionally accepted- 1 University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland
- 2 Polish Academy of Sciences, Wroclaw, Wroclaw, Poland
Klebsiella pneumoniae and K. oxytoca are members of Enterobacteriaceae. They are Gram-negative, non-motile rods that are ubiquitous in the environment and part of the human intestinal microbiota. These opportunistic pathogens may cause pneumonia and urinary tract infections. Klebsiella species are genetically and biochemically similar, therefore, it is important to find reliable methods for their differentiation. This work presents the results of biochemical assays, PCR and MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry (MS) performed on 35 Klebsiella isolates obtained from urine of patients from central Poland. Among biochemical methods the indole test demonstrated the highest discriminatory power whereas the determination of growth at 10 °C was the least effective. For all strains, biochemically identified as K. pneumonia, a 108-bp amplicon was detected, indicating the presence of the rpoB gene in their genome. Only twelve K. oxytoca isolates produced a product of the pehX gene. All tested strains were analyzed using the MALDI-TOF Biotyper, which confirmed, with high-quality scores, their identification based on api 20E and indole tests. Strain 0.011 was identified as Raoultella ornithinolytica. MALDI-TOF MS analysis proved to be the most reliable method for identifying K. oxytoca and K. pneumoniae, with potential for phylogroup differentiation.
Keywords: Biochemical Methods, Klebsiella oxytoca, Klebsiella pneumoniae, MALDI-TOF mass spectrometry, PCR, Species identification
Received: 21 Oct 2024; Accepted: 10 Feb 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 Palusiak, Maciejewska and Łukasiewicz. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence:
Agata Palusiak, University of Łódź, Łódź, Poland
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