Genetic fingerprinting techniques provide a pattern or
profile of the genetic diversity in a microbial community.
One of the fingerprinting techniques that has been
used in microbial ecology formore than a decade is the
electrophoretic separation in high resolution polyacrylamide
gels of low molecular weight rRNA molecules
(5S rRNA and tRNA) extracted from natural samples
(e.g., H¨ofle, 1988; 1990).
Recently, another genetic fingerprinting technique,
denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis (DGGE) of
PCRamplified
ribosomal DNA fragments has been
introduced into microbial ecology (Muyzer et al.,
1993). Within a short period of time this method has
attracted the attention of many environmental microbiologists,
and the technique is now used in many laboratories.