Comparison of pulsed-field gel electrophoresis and three rep-PCR methods for evaluating the genetic relatedness of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates.
OBJECTIVE
In this study, three facile repetitive-sequence PCR (rep-PCR) techniques have been compared with the pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) method for differentiating the genetic relatedness of clinical Stenotrophomonas maltophilia isolates.


RESULTS
The dendrograms of 20 S. maltophilia isolates were constructed based on the data obtained from PFGE and three PCR-based methods, i.e. enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR (ERIC-PCR), BOX-PCR and repetitive extragenic palindromic-PCR (REP-PCR). When compared with PFGE, ERIC-PCR displayed a much lower discriminatory power, whereas BOX-PCR and REP-PCR had a comparable discriminatory power for close genetic-related isolates.


CONCLUSIONS
BOX-PCR and REP-PCR can be convenient and effective methods for evaluating the close genetic relatedness of clinical S. maltophilia isolates.


CONCLUSIONS
A rapid method for determining S. maltophilia's close genetic relatedness provides a convenient tool for understanding the epidemiology of S. maltophilia.
Lin
C-W
CW
Department of Medical Laboratory Science and Biotechnology, China Medical University, Taichung, Taiwan.
Chiou
C-S
CS
Chang
Y-C
YC
Yang
T-C
TC
D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D016000:Cluster Analysis; D016172:DNA Fingerprinting; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000235:genetics*; D016521:Electrophoresis, Gel, Pulsed-Field; D005838:Genotype; D016905:Gram-Negative Bacterial Infections / Q000382:microbiology; D006801:Humans; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012091:Repetitive Sequences, Nucleic Acid; D020615:Stenotrophomonas maltophilia / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification
D004269:DNA, Bacterial