Identification of staphylococci by 16S internal transcribed spacer rRNA gene restriction fragment length polymorphism.

The capacity of 16S internal transcribed spacer (16S-ITS) rRNA gene RFLP to differentiate 16 type strains and nine clinical isolates of staphylococci was evaluated. The 16S rRNA gene was amplified together with the ITS region and the amplification products were digested with TaqI restriction enzyme. Analysis of the 16S-ITS rRNA gene RFLP profiles differentiated each of the 16 type strains into distinct RFLP haplotypes.