Direct Culture-Independent Strain Typing of <i>Burkholderia cepacia</i> Complex in Sputum Samples from Patients with Cystic Fibrosis

Abstract

We examined if multilocus sequence typing (MLST), a method for genotyping and species identification of Burkholderia cepacia complex bacteria, could be applied directly to cystic fibrosis sputum. The redesigned nested-PCR MLST format was successfully used to accurately identify strains in 23 sputum samples, of which 8 were culture negative.