SUBSPECIES DIFFERENTIATION OF SALMONELLA BY PCR-RFLP OF THE RIBOSOMALOPERON USING UNIVERSAL PRIMERS

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based method was developed to aid id entification of bacteria to subspecies level. The method used primers that annealed to highly conserved regions of the bacterial rRNA operon , which are proposed to be universal for all bacteria. The resulting P CR products gave unique electrophoretic patterns due to restriction fr agment length polymorphisms (RFLP) within the rRNA operon, allowing di fferentiation to the subspecies level. Six serotypes of Salmonella cho leraesuis are presented to demonstrate the specificity of PCR-RFLP pat terns for building an identification database. As the database continu es to accumulate, the method proves to be specific and rapid for ident ifying bacteria based on stable genetic characteristics.