Characterization of leptospiral serovars by randomly amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting

Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fingerprinting of 14 laboratory strains of leptospiral serovars (serovars australis, autumnalis, ballum, bataviae, canicola, grippotyphosa, hardjoprajitno, hebdomadis, icterohaemorrhagiae, javanica, pomona, pyrogenes, panama, and tarassovi) was carried out by using a pair of primers. Each serovar had a unique and distinct fingerprint pattern. DNAs of other bacterial species, including Escherichia coli, Pasteurella multocida, Salmonella spp., Pseudomonas spp., and Klebsiella spp., did not show any amplification. RAPD fingerprinting was found to be a rapid and sensitive method for serovar identification when it was compared to DNA restriction enzyme analysis, which produced a larger number of bands that made it more difficult to compare serovars.