DIFFERENTIATION OF CAMPYLOBACTERS AND CAMPYLOBACTER-LIKE ORGANISMS BY NUMERICAL-ANALYSIS OF ONE-DIMENSIONAL ELECTROPHORETIC PROTEIN-PATTERNS

The suitability of sodium dodecyl sulfate-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and computer-assisted comparison of the protein profiles for differentiation, identification and typing of campylobacters was evaluated. One hundred and fifty reference strains representing all Campylobacter, Helicobacter and "Flexi-spira" species were included in a single electrophoretic study and the influence of growth medium, growth conditions and laboratory-specific manipulations was investigated for several strains. The results indicate that this technique is very useful in the study of campylobacters, as (i) all species are clearly differentiated in one or more electrophoretic clusters or subclusters, (ii) the identification does not depend on the factors cited above and (iii) within several species, different electrophoretic types can be distinguished.