Typing of Staphylococcus aureus by random amplification of polymorphic DNA

OBJECTIVE To establish the random amplification of ploymorphic DNA (RAPD) typing method of S.aureus and to apply it in the clinical strain identification and epidemiology investigation were studied. METHODS DNA from 15 clinical strains of S.aureus were extracted by phenol-chloroform method and used in the RAPD assay, phage typing were also performed. RESULTS Almost all the clinical strains showed stable and distinct RAPD pattern and were divided into 5 phagetypes and 14 RAPD profiles, while enterotoxin-producing S.aureus failed to show RAPD pattern using this assay. CONCLUSION RAPD provides markers for typing of clinical strains and is suitable for molecular epidemiologic studies with high typeability, powerful discrimination, simplicity and rapidness.