AFLP typing of Staphylococcus epidermidis in multiple sequential blood cultures.
AFLP is a novel high-resolution PCR-based DNA fingerprinting method generating complex banding patterns that can be used for comparative analysis. In the present study, the applicability of AFLP in fingerprinting Staphylococcus epidermidis isolates was investigated. The criteria considered were stability of patterns, reproducibility, discriminatory capacity and consistency with epidemiological context. Repeated testing of strains and investigation of subcultures showed that AFLP patterns were reproducible and stable with an intrastrain similarity of S > or = 94% as determined by analysis of digitized patterns. Fifteen unrelated strains were heterogeneous, with a level ranging from 78-93%. The applicability of AFLP in epidemiological studies of S. epidermidis was tested on 11 sets of four blood isolates each, from 11 patients with suspected septicaemia. Nine sets had indistinguishable or highly similar AFLP patterns for each isolate per set, while two sets had heterogeneous patterns. These results show that AFLP has high discriminatory power for strain identification in S. epidermidis.
Department of Medical Microbiology, Leiden University Medical Center, The Netherlands.
J H
JH
Sloos
P
P
Janssen
C P
CP
van Boven
L
L
Dijkshoorn
D016470:Bacteremia / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes / Q000737:chemistry; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000737:chemistry; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel; D006801:Humans; D009426:Netherlands / Q000453:epidemiology; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013203:Staphylococcal Infections / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000382:microbiology*; D013212:Staphylococcus epidermidis / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D018709:Statistics, Nonparametric
D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D004262:DNA Restriction Enzymes