KARYOTYPING BY PFGE OF CLINICAL ISOLATES OF SPOROTHRIX-SCHENCKII

From October 1991 to December 1992 we had eight patients with sporotri chosis at Tsukuba University Hospital in Japan. With 8 strains isolate d from these patients, PFGE (pulsed-field gel electrophoresis) analyse s were carried out to examine whether the karyotype of S. schenckii is distinguished by our method and whether this molecular approach is a useful means of biotyping of S. schenckii strains. Chromosomes were se parated by contour-clamped homogeneous electric field (CHEF) gel elect rophoresis. The strains had six to eight chromosomes and a total genom e size was approx. 28 Mbp. Although these karyotypes of all the isolat es looked closely similar to each other, they were grouped into three types.