COMPARATIVE DNA ANALYSIS OF BORDETELLA-PERTUSSIS CLINICAL ISOLATES BYPULSED-FIELD GEL-ELECTROPHORESIS, RANDOMLY AMPLIFIED POLYMORPHISM DNA, AND ERIC POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION

We used DNA fingerprinting by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) and PCR amplification of en terobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequences (ERIC-PCR) to compare 15 clinical isolates of Bordetella pertussis recovered between August 1993 and September 1995 from 13 infants and two adults, living in the same geographic area. PFGE produced 10 patterns and made it po ssible to differentiate all the isolates and to indicate an intrafamil ial transmission. RAPD and ERIC-PCR generated banding patterns with sm all differences and had a poor discriminatory power. During the last 2 years, at Armand-Troussau pediatric hospital, 10 distinct clones of c linical B. pertussis isolates, with a predominant clone including seve n strains, could be determined by the PFGE method.