Skip to main content
hpa logo
Topics A-Z:
Search the site:
Home › Products & Services › Infectious Diseases › Laboratories and Reference Facilities › Laboratory of HealthCare Associated Infection (LHCAI) ›Opportunist Pathogens Unit (OPU) ›  Factsheet - Burkholderia cepacia complex and unusual gram negative bacteria from CF sputum
Printer friendly page (opens in new window)

Factsheet - Burkholderia cepacia complex and unusual gram negative bacteria from CF sputum

Patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) are most often colonized/infected by Staphylococcus aureus, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Haemophilus influenzae and Burkholderia cepacia complex organisms. Other glucose nonfermenters such as Ralstonia pickettii, Alcaligenes xylosoxidans, Stenotrophomonas maltophilia and Burkholderia gladioli may also be recovered. To date there are ten phylogenetically similar but genomically distinct species (genomovars) which are known as the Burkholderia cepacia complex[1].

  • B. cepacia (genomovar I)
  • B. multivorans (genomovar II)
  • B. cenocepacia (genomovar III)
  • B. stabilis (genomovar IV)
  • B. vietnamiensis (genomovar V)
  • B. dolosa (genomovar VI)
  • B. ambifaria (genomovar VII)
  • B. anthina ( genomovar VIII)
  • B. pyrrocinia (genomovar IX)
  • B. ubonensis (genomovar IX)

 

B. cepacia is the type species and was originally isolated as a cause of slippery skin in onions ( L. cepa, onion). Most isolates of B. cepacia complex organisms from cystic fibrosis are B. cenocepacia ( L. ceno, another form of)[2] or B. multivorans. Published evidence suggests that most isolates of B. cepacia from CF patients are of genomovar III; there are 4 subtypes -IIIA, IIIB,IIIC, and IIID). Genomovar III has also been linked to increased transmissibility between patients and with a poorer prognosis and higher mortality for some patients[3]. B. multivorans (genomovar II) has also been associated with epidemic spread in a number of CF centres world wide. Anecdotal evidence suggests that in a minority of individuals the prognosis may be similarly poor. The Laboratory of HealthCare Associated Infection provides specific PCR assays and DNA sequence analysis for all genomovars[4]. In addition we perform PCR/RFLP identification of the closely related genus Pandoraea, namely P. apista, P. sputorum, P. pnomenusa, P. pulmonicola and P. norimbergensis and three of the four unnamed genomospecies of this genus[5]. A specific PCR assay for Stenotrophomonas maltophilia is also available. The taxonomy of this group of naturally occurring saprophytic bacteria from the rhizosphere is rapidly evolving and no doubt a number of new species will be identified in CF patients. Their clinical significance will vary and probably be patient dependent. As almost all are constitutively resistant to polymyxin they will probably grow on widely used selective media for B. cepacia[6].

References

1. Coeyne T, Vandamme P, Govan JRW, LiPuma JJ. Taxonomy and identification of the Burkholderia cepacia complex. J Clin Microbiol 2001; 39:3427-36.

2. Vandamme P, Holmes B, Coeyne T et al . Burkholderia cenocepacia sp nov., a new twist to an old story. Res Microbiol 2003; 154:91-96.

3. Mahenthiralingam E, Baldwin A, Vandamme P . Burkholderia cepacia complex infection in patients with cystic fibrosis. J Med Microbiol 2002; 51:533-558.

4. Turton JF, Arif N, Hennessy D, Kaufmann ME, Pitt TL. A revised approach for identification of isolates within the Burkholderia cepacia complex and description of clinical isolates not assigned to any of the known genomovars. J Clin Microbiol 2007; In Press

5. Coeyne T, Liu L, Vandamme P, LiPuma JJ . Identification of Pandoraea species by 16S ribosomal DNA-based PCR assays. J Clin Microbiol 2001; 39:4452-4455.

6. Coeyne T, Goris J, Spilker T, Vandamme P, LiPuma JJ . Characterization of unusual bacteria isolated from respiratory secretions of cystic fibrosis patients and description of Inquilinus limosus gen. nov., sp. nov. J Clin Microbiol 2002; 40:2062-2069.

 

TL Pitt
August 2007


Last reviewed: 21 July 2009