BIOVAR DIVERSITY IS REFLECTED BY VARIATIONS OF GENES ENCODING UREASE OF UREAPLASMA-UREALYTICUM

Five oligonucleotide primers derived from the gene encoding urease of Ureaplasma urealyticum were designed to evaluate the relationship betw een the urease gene and biovar diversity of this organism. Five combin ations of these primers were tested by PCR and the result revealed tha t there were variations in urease genes among different serovars of U. urealyticum. This result, in agreement with other PCRs based on other functionally unrelated (rRNA and MB antigen) genes, may reflect the p hylogenetic relationship among organisms taxonomically classified as U . urealyticum.