title: Identification of taxonomic and epidemiological relationships among Campylobacter species by numerical analysis of AFLP profiles.
abstract: Amplified fragment length polymorphism (AFLP)-based profiling was performed on 138 strains representing all named Campylobacter species and subspecies. Profiles of 15/16 species comprised 6 to greater than 100 fragments and were subjected to numerical analysis. The mean similarity of 48 duplicate, outbreak and/or 'identical' strain profiles exceeded 94%. Species were clearly distinguished at the 17.90% similarity (S-) level in the dendrogram. Subspecies of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter hyointestinalis, and biovars of Campylobacter lari and Campylobacter sputorum were distinguished at higher S-levels. All outbreak or 'genetically identical' strains of C. jejuni subsp. jejuni, Campylobacter coli, C. hyointestinalis and C. sputorum clustered at S-levels >92% and were distinguished from unrelated strains. Numerical analysis of AFLP profiles is useful for concurrent identification of taxonomic and epidemiological relationships among most Campylobacter species.
authors.affiliation: Danish Veterinary Laboratory, Bülowsvej 27, DK-1790 V, Copenhagen, Denmark. sto@svs.dk
authors.forename: S L
authors.initials: SL
authors.lastname: On
authors.forename: C S
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Harrington
mesh_terms: D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002167:Campylobacter / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004196:Disease Outbreaks; D005838:Genotype; D006801:Humans; D009716:Numerical Analysis, Computer-Assisted; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015203:Reproducibility of Results