Genotyping of human Campylobacter jejuni isolates in Greece by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis.
BACKGROUND
Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) typing has been recognized by several groups as a relatively simple and quick method for genotyping of Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni). The present study was carried out to determine the genetic variations among clinical isolates of C. jejuni from Greece and to establish a database, which could be used for future epidemiological and clinical studies.


METHODS
A total of 93 C. jejuni clinical isolates of known flagellin subunit A (flaA) genotype, serotype, and antimicrobial susceptibility pattern, were collected from a general hospital in the Attica region of Greece, between the years 2000 and 2003. The PFGE profiles of SmaI DNA digests of each strain were compared using a bin analysis based on 44 molecular size intervals.


RESULTS
Forty-three different PFGE types, designated as C. jejuni (C. j.) 1 Greece (GR) to C. j. 43 GR, were identified. There was no statistically significant association of PFGE type with flaA genotype, serotype, or antimicrobial susceptibility pattern. However, PFGE typing did show a remarkable discriminatory ability within the non-serotypable group.


CONCLUSIONS
Evaluating our results, we observed that (i) there was no statistically significant clonality of a certain PFGE type among the strains examined, and (ii) the discriminatory ability of PFGE typing was much better than that of the other typing methods. This is the first report of the use of bin patterns to compare the PFGE genotypes identified.
Ioannidis
Anastassios
A
Department of Clinical Microbiology, Athens Medical School, Aeginition Hospital, Athens, Greece.
Nicolaou
Chryssoula
C
Legakis
Nicholas John
NJ
Ioannidou
Vasiliki
V
Papavasileiou
Eleni
E
Voyatzi
Aliki
A
Chatzipanagiotou
Stylianos
S
D000818:Animals; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D002169:Campylobacter Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D016123:Campylobacter jejuni / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics*; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D030541:Databases, Genetic; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field / Q000379:methods; D005408:Flagellin / Q000235:genetics*; D005759:Gastroenteritis / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000382:microbiology; D005838:Genotype; D006115:Greece / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D017720:Molecular Epidemiology / Q000379:methods; D010802:Phylogeny; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length
D005408:Flagellin; C067138:flaA protein, bacteria