Genetic relationships among Neisseria gonorrhoeae serovars analysed by multilocus enzyme electrophoresis

Multilocus enzyme electrophoretic analysis was employed to assess the genetic relatedness of Neisseria gonorrhoeae. Based on the diversity of electromorphs at 9 enzyme loci, 16 electrophoretic types (ETs) were established amongst the 65 isolates. The average number of alleles per enzyme locus was 1.7 and the mean genetic diversity per locus was 0.212. The majority of isolates belonged to either ET1 (32.3%) or ET2 (16.9%). No specific correlation of ETs was seen with serovars as the major types, ETs 1 and 2, were found distributed amongst the various serovars. Major serovars such as Bacjk (IB-1/2) and Bajk (IB-3/6) were each represented by 6 or 8 ETs respectively. Analysis of the genetic relationships of ETs to each other showed some clustering of subgroups that were more closely related than others.