Background & Objective: Molecular typing is an important tool in surveillance and outbreak investigations of human Salmonella infections. In this study, Subtyping of Salmonella Paratyphi B and C isolates derived from Iranian patients was carried out by RAPD-PCR to assess the extent of genetic diversity of these isolates.

Materials & Methods: Fourteen Salmonella isolates including 6 strains of Salmonella paratyphi B and 8 strains of Salmonella paratyphi C were characterized using RAPD-PCR. Two arbitrary primers, namely OPP-16 and P1254 were used for RAPD analysis and the dendrograms were constructed with NTsys 2.0 computer software.

Results: Both primers showed high discriminatory power in differentiating of the related strains of Salmonella. The dendrograms constructed based on RAPD-PCR profiles (with both primers) involving 14 salmonella strains revealed 4 distinct patterns, indicating that these isolates are genetically heterogeneous. Furthermore, a good correlation was not observed between the serotype and the molecular profiles obtained from RAPD data of the Salmonella isolates.

Conclusion: The findings of the present study verify the usefulness of RAPD-PCR in characterizing and comparing strains of Salmonella Paratyphi B and C.