Objective: To analyze the molecular types of Legionella (L.) pneumophila strains isolated in China, and to develop the PulseNet-China Database of L. pneumophila.
Methods: Pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) was used to analyze 262 L. pneumophila strains collected from 11 provinces between 2004 and 2009 in China. Different kinds of genomic DNA in different L. pneumophila strains were isolated and separated after digesting with Asc I. BioNumerics software was used to analysis the PFGE fingerprints.
Results: L. pneumophila strains isolated in China were quite different regarding their PFGE patterns. There were 108 PFGE types among the 262 strains tested in this study. The similarity value of these strains was in the range of 16% - 100% and the same types were discovered in different provinces and years.
Conclusion: L. pneumophila strains isolated in China were with high genetic variations. There might be different clones existed in China. The development of PulseNet China Database was thus of great significance in monitoring the L. pneumophila strains in the future.