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. 1993 Jul;31(7):1927–1931. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.7.1927-1931.1993

Whole-cell repetitive element sequence-based polymerase chain reaction allows rapid assessment of clonal relationships of bacterial isolates.

C R Woods 1, J Versalovic 1, T Koeuth 1, J R Lupski 1
PMCID: PMC265663  PMID: 8349778

Abstract

Repetitive element sequence-based polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR) enables the generation of DNA fingerprints which discriminate bacterial species and strains. We describe the application of whole-cell methods which allow specimens from broth cultures or colonies from agar plates to be utilized directly in the PCR mixture. The rep-PCR-generated DNA fingerprints obtained with whole-cell samples match results obtained with genomic DNA templates. Examples with different gram-negative bacteria (e.g., Citrobacter diversus, Escherichia coli, and Pseudomonas aeruginosa) and gram-positive bacteria (e.g., Staphylococcus aureus and Streptococcus pneumoniae) are demonstrated. Rapid specimen preparation methods enable rep-PCR-based fingerprinting to be completed in several hours and, therefore, allows the timely analysis of epidemiological relationships.

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Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

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