Genomics reveals the novel species placement of industrial contaminant isolates incorrectly identified as Burkholderia lata

The Burkholderia cepacia complex (Bcc) is a closely related group of bacteria the accurate identification of which is essential in the context of infectious diseases. In industry, they can contaminate non-food products, which include home and personal care products and cosmetics. The Bcc are problematic contaminants due to their ubiquitous presence and intrinsic antimicrobial resistance, which enables them to occasionally overcome preservation systems in non-sterile products. Burkholderia lata and Burkholderia contaminans are amongst the most frequently encountered Bcc bacteria as industrial contaminants, but their identification is not straightforward. Both species were historically established as a part of a group known collectively as taxon K, based upon analysis of the recA gene and multilocus sequence typing (MLST). Here, we deploy a straightforward genomics-based workflow for accurate Bcc classification using Average Nucleotide Identity (ANI) and core-gene analysis. The workflow was used to examine a panel of 23 Burkholderia taxon K industrial strains which based on MLST comprised 13 B. lata, 4 B. contaminans, and 6 unclassified Bcc strains.