Genotyping of amino acid-producing Corynebacterium glutamicum strains based on multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) scheme

Background: Confusing parental information may hinder to dissect mechanisms of amino acid hyper-producing Corynebacterium glutamicum strains. Thus, an efficient method for genotyping of the C. glutamicum is heavily called. Results: Multi-locus sequence typing (MLST) is currently the most popular molecular typing technique. But currently this method is not available for C. glutamicum. In this study, a MLST scheme was established based on sequences of seven housekeeping genes, for genotyping of C. glutamicum. The MLST method performed an efficient discrimination of 17 strains and helps to understand the population structure of this bacterium. Conclusions: This work has expanded the MLST method to C. glutamicum and developed an efficient technique to discriminate strains of uncertain origin.