COMPARISON OF ARBITRARILY PRIMED POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION, RIBOTYPING, AND MONOCLONAL-ANTIBODY ANALYSIS FOR SUBTYPING LEGIONELLA-PNEUMOPHILA SEROGROUP-1

Arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) was used to char acterize Legionella pneumophila serogroup 1. Cells from a single colon y could be subtyped by AP-PCR within a few hours. The discrimination b etween strains of L. pneumophila serogroup 1 by AP-PCR was equivalent to that by monoclonal antibody analysis and ribotyping. Four strains r epresenting the monoclonal antibody pattern most frequently associated with outbreaks all yielded unique amplicon patterns by AP-PCR.