Specific Neisseria gonorrhoeae DNA-Probes Derived from Ribosomal RNA

Abstract
Eighteen sequences complementary to less-conserved regions within the 16S and 23S ribosomal ribonucleic acid (rRNA) of Neisseria gonorrhoeae were subcloned or chemically synthetized and used as probes in a dot-spot deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA): DNA hybridization format. Some these probes exclusively detected Neisseria gonorrhoeae nucleic acid, whereas others also showed hybridization signals with nucleic acid from other bacterial species. Our results indicate that rRNA-derived DNA-probes can be used to differentiate between very closely related taxa without the ue of Southern-blot analysis.