Correlation between pulsed-field gel electrophoresis profiles and Salmonella serotypes

Abstract

To analyze the relationship between pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE)subtyping and serotyping of Salmonella(S.). PFGE was performed and profiles were analyzed on 1230 Salmonella isolates which comprising the top five serotypes including Typhimurium, Enteritidis, Derby, Agona and Senftenberg identified in China. The potential predictive relationship between PFGE banding patterns and particular serotypes was compared and the discriminatory consensus band class markers of individual serotypes were identified. Among all the 1230 Salmonella strains, 1149 strains were found assistant with serotyping through PFGE cluster analysis, providing the matching accuracy reaching 93.4%. For the five serotypes, the positive prediction rate appeared more than 90.0% and the negative prediction rate was over 95.0% on serotype cluster prediction. Results presented in this study were representatives of the top 5 Salmonella serovars, showing that PFGE cluster analysis could provide clues to identity and confirmation of serotypes.