Genotyping of Staphylococcus aureus Based on Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA Analysis

To perform the genotyping method of Staphylococcus aureus based on random amplified polymorphic DNA analysis (RAPD), we optimized the several polymerase chain reaction (PCR) conditions such as Mg2+ concentration, annealing temperature and DNA polymerase. In order to assess the discriminatory power of this typing method, 18 epidemiologically unrelated S. aureus strains were examined and the results were compared with the coagulase gone typing method. Among the five primers, RAPD PCR using primer 7 yielding 15 different types was the most discriminative primer. All the strains except two were distinguished each others by the combination of RAPD profiles acquired using the three primers.These data suggest that the discriminatory power of the RAPD genotyping method is great enough to be used as the sole method to type S. aureus and this method is useful as an epidemiological tool