Ribotyping of Staphylococcus aureus: an assessment using well-defined strains.

Ribotyping, with homologous or heterologous (Escherichia coli) r-RNA, of the propagating strains for phages of the international set for strains of Staphylococcus aureus of human origin was undertaken to determine the discrimination of this typing method. Ribotyping could distinguish between strains of different phage groups, but could not distinguish between seven phage group III strains of different phage type. Ribotying may be a useful adjunct to phage typing in S. aureus but is unlikely to replace it as the primary method of epidemiological typing.