Discrimination of the Bacillus cereus group members by pattern analysis of random amplified polymorphic DNA-PCR.

We tried to discriminate 16 strains of the Bacillus cereus group including B. cereus, B. thuringiensis, B. mycoides, B. pseudomycoides, and B. weihenstephanensis strains by the pattern analysis of Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) -PCR. Eight oligonucleotides primers were prepared and the polymorphic patterns of the DNA of each strain were compared with those of others. The primers E and F gave different patterns of RAPD-PCR products in all strains of the B. cereus group, so these primers are effective tools for the discrimination of closely related strains. All eight primers showed different polymorphic patterns of DNA for the four strains of B. cereus isolated from the kitchen of a private home, which verifies the advantage of the RAPD-PCR analysis for the discrimination of isolated strains of B. cereus from the environment.