SEROVAR DISTRIBUTION OF CHLAMYDIA-TRACHOMATIS ISOLATES COLLECTED FROMTHE CERVIX - USE OF THE POLYMERASE-CHAIN-REACTION AND RESTRICTION-ENDONUCLEASE DIGESTION

In order to study the distribution of Chlamydia trachomatis serovars i solated from the cervix of patients attending the gynaecology out-pati ents clinic of Safdarjang Hospital, New Delhi, India, gene typing was performed using restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analys is of a polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-amplified portion of the major outer membrane protein (MOMP). A set of primers were used to amplify a 540bp gene fragment which encompasses the four hypervariable regions of the MOMP. EcoR1 and Xbal double digestion of the product gave dist inctive patterns for the genital serovars (D-K) as demonstrated on 12% polyacrylamide gel stained with ethidium bromide. PCR and RFLP were u sed to genotype 50 clinical isolates and their respective control sero vars. Clinical isolates demonstrated the same banding pattern as the c ontrol strain of C. trachomatis. The serovars isolated were D (39.13%) , E (28.26%), G (15.25%), I (10.86%) and F (6.5%), representing 92% of those investigated.