Phylogenetic Classification Of Bartonella Species By Comparing The Two-Component System Response Regulator Feup Sequences

Abstract The bacterial genus Bartonella is classified in the alpha-2 Proteobacteria on the basis of 16S rDNA sequence comparison. The Bartonella two-component system feuPQ is found in nearly all bacterial species. We investigated the usefulness of the response regulator feuP gene sequence in the classification of 18 well characterized Bartonella species. Phylogenetic relationships were inferred using parsimony neighbour-joining and maximum-likelihood methods. Reliable classifications of most of the studied species were obtained. Bartonella were divided into two supported clades containing two supported clusters each. These results were similar to our previous data obtained with groEL ftsZ and ribC genes sequences. The wide range of feuP DNA sequence similarity 78.6 to 96.5 among Bartonella species makes it a promising candidate for multi-locus sequence typing MLST of clinical isolates. This is the first report proving the usefulness of feuP sequences in bartonellae classification at the species level.