Genetic diversity of indigenous Bradyrhizobium japonicum population in Croatia was studied by using different PCR-based fingerprinting methods. Characteristic DNA profiles for 20 B. japonicum field isolates and two reference strains were obtained using random primers (RAPD) and two sets of repetitive primers (REP- and ERIC-PCR). In comparison with the REP, the ERIC primer set generates fingerprints of lower complexity, but still several strain-specific bands were detected. Different B. japonicum isolates could be more efficiently distinguished by using combined results from REP- and ERIC-PCR. The most polymorphic bands were observed after amplification with four different RAPD primers. Both methods, RAPD and rep-PCR, resulted in identical grouping of the strains. Cluster analysis, irrespective of the fingerprinting method used, revealed that all the isolates could be divided into three major groups. Within the major groups, the degree of relative similarity between B. japonicum isolates was dependent upon the method used. Our results indicate that both RAPD and rep-PCR fingerprinting can effectively distinguish different B. japonicum strains. RAPD fingerprinting proved to be slightly more discriminatory than rep-PCR.

中文翻译：

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日本根瘤菌分离株的基因组指纹图谱通过RAPD和rep-PCR分析。

通过使用基于PCR的不同指纹图谱方法，研究了克罗地亚本土的日本慢生根瘤菌种群的遗传多样性。使用随机引物（RAPD）和两组重复引物（REP-和ERIC-PCR）获得了20个日本血吸虫田间分离株和两个参考菌株的特征DNA图谱。与REP相比，ERIC引物组产生了较低复杂度的指纹，但仍检测到了几个菌株特异性条带。通过使用REP-和ERIC-PCR的组合结果，可以更有效地区分不同的日本血吸虫。用四种不同的RAPD引物扩增后，观察到最多的多态性条带。RAPD和rep-PCR两种方法均导致菌株的分组相同。聚类分析，无论使用哪种指纹方法，揭示所有分离株可分为三大类。在主要人群中，日本芽孢杆菌分离株之间的相对相似程度取决于所使用的方法。我们的结果表明，RAPD和rep-PCR指纹图谱都可以有效地区分不同的日本血吸虫菌株。事实证明，RAPD指纹比rep-PCR更具歧视性。