Molecular Typing

Pulsed-field Gel Electrophoresis (PFGE)

Making the epidemiologic link between cases of Legionnaires' disease and a suspected environmental source can be difficult due to the sporadic nature of the disease and the variety of sources from which the organism can be isolated.  Both phenotypic and genotypic methods have been used to demonstrate identity among strains of Legionella pneumophila in epidemiologic investigations.  Monoclonal antibody (MAB) subtyping is a useful phenotypic method for subdividing strains of L. pneumophila, serogroup 1.  Genotypic methods, such as pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE), have become increasingly valuable for epidemiologic investigation due to their high discriminatory power, broad application and speed of results.