title: Progress in genotyping of Chlamydia trachomatis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To review the common genotyping techniques of Chlamydia trachomatis in terms of their principles, characteristics, applications and limitations.
  
  
  METHODS
  Data used in this review were mainly from English literatures of PubMed database. The search terms were "Chlamydia trachomatis" and "genotyping". Meanwhile, data from World Health Organization were also cited.
  
  
  METHODS
  Original articles and reviews relevant to present review's theme were selected.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Different genotyping techniques were applied on different occasions according to their characteristics, especially in epidemiological studies worldwide, which pushed the study of Chlamydia trachomatis forward greatly. In addition, summaries of some epidemiological studies by genotyping were also included in this work for reference and comparison.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A clear understanding of common genotyping techniques could be helpful to genotype C. trachomatis more appropriately and effectively. Furthermore, more studies on the association of genotypes of Chlamydia trachomatis with clinical manifestations should be performed.
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory, Shenzhen Baoan Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518133, China.
authors.forename: Yong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Xia
authors.affiliation: Central Laboratory, Shenzhen Baoan Maternal and Child Health Hospital, Shenzhen, Guangdong 518133, China. Email: xionglk@sina.cn.
authors.forename: Likuan
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Xiong
mesh_terms: D002692:Chlamydia trachomatis / Q000235:genetics*; D005838:Genotype; D058885:Multilocus Sequence Typing; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D020080:Tandem Repeat Sequences / Q000235:genetics