Molecular Typing of Vibrio parahaemolyticus

Abstract

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is a Gram-negative, halophilic bacterium and a causative agent of seafood-borne gastroenteritis in human worldwide. Genotyping is a method used for characterizing the epidemiological spreads of pathogenic bacteria. The aim of this study is to compare the molecular typing techniques including arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR) and variable-number tandem repeat (VNTR) methods for classifying V. parahaemolyticus clinical isolates. The results revealed
4 AP-PCR patterns, whereas two VNTR loci showed 4 and 6 types of V. parahaemolyticus strains, respectively. This suggested that the VNTR method has more discrimination power than the AP-PCR method. However, the PCR product sizes from the VNTR method are sometimes difficult to classify. Therefore, the consensus size, the copy number of tandem repeat and the suitable PCR condition should be concerned.