DIRECT COMPARISON OF 2 COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE COMPUTER-PROGRAMS FOR ANALYZING DNA-FINGERPRINTING GELS

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprints were generated with M13 and DAF4 primers for 25 isolates of Acinetobacter spp, obtain ed from 16 different hospitals situated in 12 countries, The overall r obustness of the algorithms and the reproducibility of the cluster ana lysis results generated by two commercially available computer program s (GelCompar and DENDRON) for analysing DNA fingerprinting gels were t ested by examining the same set of fingerprinting data independently i n two laboratories with the different software packages, Both programs were efficient at recognising and grouping strains with closely simil ar RAPD fingerprints, i,e,, strains which might be expected to have a close epidemiological or evolutionary relationship, However, the relat ionships suggested for less closely related strains showed considerabl e variation in terms of the overall similarity or percentage correlati on values suggested by the programs, It was concluded that both progra ms were useful tools for indicating close genotypic relationships betw een individual strains, but that epidemiological conclusions based on the similarity or correlation values (or the dendrograms derived from them) obtained for less closely related strains should be treated with considerable caution.