Comparison on capabilities of PFGE and auto-ribotyping in subtyping of Vibrio cholerae

Objective To compare the capabilities of PFGE and auto-ribotyping in subtyping of Vibrio cholerae strains. Methods Totally 254 of strains of Vibrio cholerae O1 and 37 strains of Vibrio cholerae O139 were used as panels to compare the typing capabilities, discernibilities and outbreak investigation capabilities of PFGE and auto-ribotyping. Results The 254 O1 strains and 37 O139 strains were divided into 211 and 21 patterns by PFGE with D value of 0.9952 and 0.9339, respectively. Auto-ribotyping divided these strains into 101 and 10 different patterns with D value of 0.9075 and 0.8033, respectively. For O1 outbreak strains, both PFGE and auto-ribotyping could distinguish outbreak-related and unrelated strains. PFGE could cluster the isolates from each outbreak into the same pattern, and distinguish different patterns from different outbreaks, whereas auto-ribotyping had lower discernibility. Conclusion PFGE has higher discernibility compared with auto-ribotyping. Auto-ribotyping has limitation in V. cholerae subtyping and outbreak investigation.