Genotyping of Chlamydia trachomatis strains from cultured isolates and nucleic acid amplification test-positive specimens

Urogenital strains of Chlamydia tracbomatis are divided into several serogroups (D-K). Since these serovars are represented with differing prevalence in the population a serotyping of strains is necessary, when characterising the epidemiological situation. The aim of this study was the genotyping of C. tracbomatis strains, the comparison of the results with those of serotyping, and the genotyping of positive specimens using commercial nucleic acid amplification tests (NAAT). The Chlamydia tracbomatis major outer membrane protein gene (omp1) from 55 isolated strains and 36 NAAT-positive specimens was amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The restriction fragment length polymorphism (RFLP) patterns of these amplicons were compared with those of reference strains. The genotypes E and F were found to be most prevalent. The results are discussed considering other studies, genovariants and epidemiology.