Genotyping of Neisseria gonorrhoeae by Pulse Field Gel Electrophoresis and PCR

Auxotyping (growth of cells on chemically defined media) and serotyping (reaction of cells with a defined set of monoclonal antibodies [MAbs]) are the traditional and most widely used methods for the classification of Neisseria gonorrhoeae isolates. As an example, Knapp et al. (1 ) used the combination of these two typing techniques to study the epidemiology of 489 isolates of N. gonorrhoeae collected over a 3-mo time period. Separately, 11 different auxotypes and 19 different serotypes were found, but when combined, a total of 57 auxotype/serotype classes were identified. Although this system was and still is very useful for epidemiological studies, some laboratories felt more comfortable using molecular techniques to classify their gonococcal isolates.