Comparative analysis of infrequent-restriction-site PCR and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis for epidemiological typing of Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 strains.
Two methods were compared for the analysis of 48 unrelated and epidemiologically related Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1 isolates. These are the infrequent-restriction-site PCR (IRS-PCR) assay with adapters designed for XbaI and PstI restriction sites and the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) analysis determined after DNA restriction with SfiI. Both methods demonstrated a high level of discrimination with a similar capacity for differentiating 23 of the 24 unrelated isolates. PFGE analysis and IRS-PCR assay were both able to identify epidemiologically related isolates of L. pneumophila from three outbreaks. Hence, IRS-PCR assay appears to be a reproducible (intergel reproducibility, 100%) and discriminative (discriminatory index, > or = 0.996) tool for typing of Legionella. Compared to PFGE, however, IRS-PCR presented an advantage through ease of performance and with attributes of rapidity and sensitivity of target DNA.
Riffard
S
S
Centre National de Référence des Legionella, Laboratoire de Bactériologie, UPRES EA1655, Faculté de Médecine R.T.H. Laënnec, Lyon, France. derba@cimac-res.univ-lyon1.fr
Lo Presti
F
F
Vandenesch
F
F
Forey
F
F
Reyrolle
M
M
Etienne
J
J
D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D006801:Humans; D016952:Legionella pneumophila / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D011817:Rabbits; D015183:Restriction Mapping