Identification of Pseudomonas aeruginosa phylogroups of 136 independent isolates from burned patients during a decade using a PCR multiplex: Characterization of the three strains identified as members of clade 3.

Whole genome analysis led to the identification of five P. aeruginosa phylogroups that include both clinical and environmental isolates. One of these phylogroups (clade 3 or PA7 group) is highly genetically divergent and has been recently reclassified as Pseudomonas paraeruginosa based in genomic analysis, although the phenotype and type of infections that these outlier strains produce are indistinguishable from those caused by the other P. aeruginosa phylogroups. Here we describe a PCR-multiplex that can be used to classify strains belonging to phylogroups 1, 2, 3 or 5 and its use to study a collection of 136 P. aeruginosa isolates obtained from 136 burned patients treated in a tertiary hospital at Mexico City during a ten-year period (2011 to 2021).