RAPD fingerprinting of Chlorobium strains

In vitro amplification of genomic DNA fragments with single primers of arbitrary sequence was used as a rapid and sensitive method to obtain fingerprints of fourteen strains belonging to five Chlorobium species. Each strain showed a distinctive pattern of bands that permitted its unequivocal identification when the primer gyr lower was used. Our results indicate that the random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) technique is a simple, fast and useful tool to complement the identification of newly isolated Chlorobium strains. Moreover, the cladistic analysis of thirteen Chlorobium strains was obtained by joining the data from pulsed field (PFGE) macrorestriction patterns, ribotyping and random amplified DNA (RAPD). The resulting distribution of strains shows some differences between the current classification within this genus and the distribution based on generic relationships. Thus, taking into account molecular and phenotypic data seems to be the best way to have a better understanding of the taxonomy of these bacteria.