Deoxyribonucleic acid restriction digest patterns in Campylobacter species: a comparison with Penner serotype

Diversity based on restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) analysis , was studied in its strains of Campylobacter, comprising 27 chicken and 21 human strains of C, jejuni and C. coli, using genomic Southern hybridisati on. Restriction digests of chromosomal DNA were prepared by treating with H aeIII and probed using a C. jejuni DNA probe. Nineteen distinct hybridisati on patterns were identified, and differences in hybridisation pattern betwe en members of the two species, and in individual strains of the same specie s, were seen. The method described proved more discriminatory than the Penn er serotype, as strains from the same serotype were distinguished. The rela tive simplicity of the patterns obtained, together with the apparent divers ity identified among individual strains and species, suggests that DNA fing erprinting using the C. jejuni DNA probe could be a useful identification m ethod in epidemiological studies of Campylobacter infection in Nigeria.