Random amplified polymorphic DNA fingerprinting of Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli isolated from human faeces, seawater and poultry products.

The polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technique was used to obtain randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) profiles from 64 type and serotype reference strains and 114 isolates of Campylobacter jejuni and C. coli from food, seawater and human faeces. Genetic diversity was detected among the strains as a total of 118 different RAPD profiles were obtained, each one containing from 4 to 11 bands between 0.30 and 1.50 kb. The discriminatory power of a random 10-mer primer (sequence 5'-CAATCGCCGT-3') was assessed. In general, no profiles were common to strains of the same Penner serogroup, but occasional strains from different Penner serotypes shared identical band profiles. RAPD analysis also differentiated between the species, and after numerical analysis, five main clusters were defined at the 40% similarity level, corresponding to C. jejuni, C. coli and C. lari with some exceptions. RAPD profiling of Campylobacter is highly discriminatory and is a valuable new alternative to traditional typing in epidemiological studies.