RANDOM AMPLIFICATION OF POLYMORPHIC DNA (RAPD) OF SALMONELLA - STRAINDIFFERENTIATION AND CHARACTERIZATION OF AMPLIFIED SEQUENCES

Random amplification of polymorphic DNA (RAPD) was evaluated for its a bility to differentiate Salmonella strains from various sources. Under defined conditions RAPD using a 10-mer primer (1254) produced a serie s of amplification products able to reproducibly distinguish strains r epresenting 20 different serotypes of Salmonella. Primer 1254 also pro ved capable of discrimination between some but not all isolates of Sal m. ser. Enteritidis and Salm. ser. Typhimurium, phage typing proving t o be most discriminatory for the latter serotype. Cloning of fragments into a vector allowed sequencing and database searching for identific ation of fragments and an indication of criteria for primer template i nteraction in RAPD. Southern blotting using a digoxigenin-labelled pro be allowed identification of related bands between RAPD profiles. Thes e observations demonstrate the potential of rapid molecular typing by RAPD for the genomic typing of Salmonella strains.