Evaluation of AFLP, a high-resolution DNA fingerprinting method, as a toolfor molecular subtyping of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157 : H7 isolates

The amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP(TM)) technique is based on the selective PCR amplification of restriction fragments. We investigated the utility of AFLP in the molecular subtyping of enterohemorrhagic Escheri chia coli serotype O157:H7 isolates. We analyzed a total of 46 isolates of E, coli O157:H7 along with other serotypes, O26:H11, O114:H19 and O119:NT. Isolates of E. coli O157:H7 derived from the same outbreak showed an identi cal AFLP-banding pattern and were subtyped into the same group, giving resu lts almost consistent with those of a pulsed-held gel electrophoresis (PFGE ) study, while other serotypes showed clearly different patterns from those off. coli O157:H7, These results suggest that the AFLP technique has poten tial as an alternative tool for the molecular epidemiology of E, coli O157: H7.