Subtracted restriction fingerprinting--a new typing technique using magnetic capture of tagged restriction fragments

Molecular typing of bacterial pathogens is an important issue in the epidemiological analysis of emerging infections in humans and animals. Numerous methods have been developed for and applied to a wide variety of bacteria of medical, veterinary and zoonotic importance. The present minireview provides a description of a new typing approach designated subtracted restriction fingerprinting (SRF), its use for typing of Salmonella isolates and a comparison with the most widely used typing techniques for these bacteria. SRF is based on double restriction endonuclease digestion of whole cell DNA, followed by a fill-in reaction with specifically tagged nucleotides and subtractive capture of selected restriction fragments. This results in a reduced number of fragments optimal for separation in standard agarose gels.