Comparison of Neisseria gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing and porB sequence analysis for identification of clusters of N. gonorrhoeae isolates.

porB DNA sequence analysis and Neisseria gonorrhoeae multiantigen sequence typing (NG-MAST) methods were compared for their abilities to discriminate strains and to identify epidemiologically congruent pairs of N. gonorrhoeae. Both methods provided high-level discrimination of strains. NG-MAST further differentiated large porB-based clusters. However, considerations of cost suggest that porB DNA sequence analysis is a useful tool for preliminary molecular analysis of the epidemiology of N. gonorrhoeae.