Comparison of identification methods for oral asaccharolytic Eubacterium species

Thirty one strains of oral, asaccharolytic Eubacterium spp. and the type strains of E. brachy, E. nodatum and E. timidum were subjected to three identification techniques--protein-profile analysis, determination of metabolic end-products, and the API ATB32A identification kit. Five clusters were obtained from numerical analysis of protein profiles and excellent correlations were seen with the other two methods. Protein profiles alone allowed unequivocal identification.