Polymorphism in DNA restriction patterns of Coxiella burnetii isolates investigated by pulsed field gel electrophoresis and image analysis.

Pulsed field gel electrophoresis was used for differentiation of Coxiella burnetii isolates derived from animals in Europe and one from Namibia. Previously published data on isolates from North America demonstrated four groups with distinct banding patterns. Fingerprints of prototype isolates as references confirmed four different cleavage patterns upon NotI restriction of total DNA as described. With isolates available at our institute five additional DNA banding patterns were obtained from European and one Namibian isolate after endonuclease restriction with NotI. To compare patterns from different electrophoretic runs more precisely an image analysis system was used.