Jeong Man Kim1, Seok Hoon Jeong2, Daeyoung Seo3, Eun Hee Park4, Eun Ju Song5, Jae-Cheol Choi6, Eun Yup Lee6, and Chulhun L. Chang6
Department of Laboratory Medicine1, Dong-A University College of Medicine; Department of Laboratory Medicine2, Kosin University College of Medicine; Department of Laboratory Medicine3, Dong-Eui Medical Center; Microbiology Division4, Busan Metropolitan City Institute of Health and Environment; Department of Microbiology5, Pusan National University College of Natural Sciences; and Department of Laboratory Medicine6, Pusan National University College of Medicine
Corresponding to Chulhun L. Chang, E-mail: cchl@pusan.ac.kr
Ann Clin Microbiol 2004;7(1):38-42.
Copyright © Korean Society of Clinical Microbiology.
Background : It is important to define a source of infection when outbreak of Legionella infections has occurred. The performance of a molecular strain typing method was evaluated for environmental and clinical isolates of Legionella pneumophila.
Methods : Thirteen environmental strains, eleven clinical isolates and one type strain (ATCC 33152) of Legionella pneumophila were used for the analysis of pulsed field gel electrophoresis.
Results : All 25 strains were discriminated into 21 types. Two strains isolated from different locations in a same building showed different types. Each two, four, and two strains were shown as the same PFGE patterns.
Conclusions : Even though PFGE typing of Legionella pneumophila is excellent for strain differentiation, the same pattern does not necessarily indicate the same source of isolates. (Korean J Clin Microbiol 2004;7(1):38-42)
Legionella, Pulsed field gel electrophoresis
