DNA FINGERPRINTING OF LEPTOSPIRA SPP. USING A REPETITIVE SEQUENCE-BASED POLYMERASE CHAIN REACTION

Abstract

A DNA fingerprinting technique, repetitive sequence based polymerase chain reaction (rep-PCR), was used to characterize 20 isolates of both pathogenic and nonpathogenic Leptospira spp. Rep-PCR differentiated 20 Leptospira isolates into 16 rep-PCR patterns with a high index of discrimination (D=0.963). The results of cluster analysis demonstrated that pathogenic and nonpathogenic Leptospira belonged to separate clusters with at least 60% similarity. Overall, the results of our studies indicated that rep-PCR is useful for fingerprinting
Leptospira species. The technique is simple, rapid, inexpensive and may be used for strain tracking in molecular epidemiological investigations of Leptospirosis outbreaks in the future.