Molecular Methods for Bacterial Strain Typing

ABSTRACT        Typing of bacteria is an important part of epidemiological studies on nosocomial infections. Bacterial identification methods have dramatically improved in recent years, which is mainly due to advancements in the field of molecular biotechnology. In many cases, molecular techniques have replaced phenotypic typing methods. Currently, a wide range of bacterial typing techniques is used that are different from one another in the aspects of study objectives, costs, reliability and discriminatory power. None of the typing methods can achieve all desired objectives of a study alone. Different typing methods are used for various purposes including: 1. confirmation of epidemiological relationships in spread of an infection, 2. providing epidemiological hypotheses about epidemiological relationships between bacteria in the absence of epidemiological data, 3. describing the distribution of bacterial types and identification of affecting factors. Inferences of epidemiological studies depend on the chosen typing technique and objectives of the study. Therefore, the typing technique can be useful and effective in increasing our understanding of the pathogenesis, transmission and prevention of possible diseases. The aim of this study was to evaluate various methods of molecular typing of bacteria and to compare these methods from different aspects.