The value of rRNA gene restriction site polymorphism analysis for delineating taxa in the genus Staphylococcus

A total of 101 staphylococcal strains were ribotyped using EcoRI and HindII I as restriction enzymes and plasmid pBA2 as the rDNA probe. Isolates from 10 newly described staphylococcal taxa were among those examined. All the r ibotypes were added to our database. Staph DB. which now contains the sizes of the bands of 135 EcoRI and 120 HindIII ribotypes from 408 strains belon ging to 42 staphylococcal taxa. The relatedness of ribotypes was evaluated by using the Dice coefficient. The ribotypes, and thus the strains, were cl ustered by the unweighted pair group method with averages (UPGMA). Separati on into clusters correlated well with the delineation of the staphylococcal species but not with that of the different subspecies. No discrimination w as possible between Staphylococcus vitulinus and Staphylococcus pulvereri. Ecovar-specific groups were evident within Staphylococcus intermedius and S taphylococcus hyicus, The data increase the usefulness of rRNA gene restric tion site polymorphism analysis for staphylococcal taxonomy.