DNA fingerprints of Pseudomonas spp. using rotating field electrophoresis

Rotating field electrophoresis (RFE) was applied to evaluate the usefulness of this technique for identification of several Pseudomonas strains with suspected importance in deliberate releases. Genomes of common wild-type or genetically modified strains of Pseudomonas fluorescens, Pseudomonas stutzeri, Pseudomonas putida and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were digested with rare-cutting restriction endonucleases and subjected to pulsed field gel electrophoresis. Restrictions with SpeI or XbaI produced 11-28 large DNA fragments in the range of 50-500 kb pairs. The specific genomic fingerprints were different for most strains of the same species, but identical for closely related strains. Differences were not affected by the presence of natural or genetically modified plasmids.