RAPD typing in microbiology--a technical review.

Many biochemical and molecular techniques can be used for distinguishing isolates of a given bacterial species. Traditional typing techniques based on phenotypic characteristics such as serotyping are being increasingly challenged by the use of DNA-based methods. The introduction of the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) has led to typing techniques based on DNA amplification. Randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) typing (also known as arbitrarily primed-polymerase chain reaction, APPCR) is one such technique which is being used increasingly to type micro-organisms, especially during clinical outbreaks. The application and potential problems and solutions of RAPD typing are discussed and the role of such techniques among established typing methods is addressed.