Evaluation of AFLP, a high-resolution DNA fingerprinting method, as a tool for molecular subtyping of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli O157:H7 isolates

The amplified fragment-length polymorphism (AFLP(TM)) technique is based on the selective PCR amplification of restriction fragments. We investigated the utility of AFLP in the molecular subtyping of enterohemorrhagic Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 isolates. We analyzed a total of 46 isolates of E, coli O157:H7 along with other serotypes, O26:H11, O114:H19 and O119:NT. Isolates of E. coli O157:H7 derived from the same outbreak showed an identical AFLP-banding pattern and were subtyped into the same group, giving results almost consistent with those of a pulsed-held gel electrophoresis (PFGE) study, while other serotypes showed clearly different patterns from those off. coli O157:H7, These results suggest that the AFLP technique has potential as an alternative tool for the molecular epidemiology of E, coli O157:H7.