USE OF ARBITRARILY PRIMED POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION ANALYSIS TO TYPE DISEASE AND CARRIER STRAINS OF NEISSERIA-MENINGITIDIS ISOLATED DURING A UNIVERSITY OUTBREAK

Disease and carrier isolates of Neisseria meningitidis from two region s of the United States were typed by the arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (PCR), or random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD), met hod. This technique generates strain-specific arrays of amplified DNA fragments using low-stringency PCR with single, arbitrarily chosen pri mers. Each of 3 disease isolates and 7 of 11 carrier isolates from an outbreak at the University of Connecticut were indistinguishable using each of 4 primers. In contrast, 22 other isolates (the remaining 4 ca rrier isolates plus 18 disease and carrier isolates from Connecticut, Illinois, and Missouri) were divided into 18 sets using the same 4 pri mers. This outcome supports the view that disease isolates from an out break may reflect sporadic invasive progression by a strain that also frequently causes asymptomatic colonization. Our results show that RAP D tests provide a sensitive and efficient means of distinguishing gene tically different meningococcal strains and that they should facilitat e clinical, epidemiologic, and population genetic studies of this impo rtant pathogen.