Biolog GEN III MicroPlate™ system

Phenotypic profile of the bacterial isolates was analysed using GEN III MicroPlates™ (Biolog, Hayward, CA, USA), which includes 94 phenotypic tests, 71 carbon source utilisation assays and 23 chemical sensitivity assays according to the manufacturer’s protocol. Bacterial isolates were suspended in the inoculating fluid B (Biolog, Hayward, CA, USA) standardised to 85% T using turbidimeter (Biolog, Hayward, CA, USA). The cell suspension (100 μl) was inoculated into each well of the GENIII MicroPlates™. The plates were then incubated at 30 °C for 24 h. The utilisation pattern was indicated by the reduction of the tetrazolium salt, which is a redox indicator dye that changes from colourless into purple in the well. The colour changes were monitored as absorbance with OmniLog^® Incubator/Reader (Biolog, Hayward, CA, USA) at 590 nm. The data were collected using OmniLog^® MiroArray™ Data Collection Software 1.2 (Biolog, Hayward, CA, USA).