Typing of Listeria monocytogenes strains by repetitive element sequence-based PCR.

Listeria monocytogenes strains possess short repetitive extragenic palindromic (REP) elements and enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus (ERIC) sequences. We used repetitive element sequence-based PCR (rep-PCR) to evaluate the potential of REP and ERIC elements for typing L. monocytogenes strains isolated from humans, animals, and foods. On the basis of rep-PCR fingerprints, L. monocytogenes strains were divided into four major clusters matching origin of isolation. rep-PCR fingerprints of human and animal isolates were different from those of food isolates. Computer evaluation of rep-PCR fingerprints allowed discrimination among the tested serotypes 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, 3b, and 4b within each major cluster. The index of discrimination calculated for 52 epidemiologically unrelated isolates of L. monocytogenes was 0.98 for REP- and ERIC-PCR. Our results suggest that rep-PCR can provide an alternative method for L. monocytogenes typing.