| abstract |
A method of characterizing an unknown organism which comprises comparing the chromatographic pattern of restriction endonuclease-digester DNA from the unknown organism, which digested DNA has been hybridized or reassociated with ribosomal RNA information-containing nucleic acid from or derived from a known probe organizm, with at least two equivalent chromatographic patterns, each one of the equivalent chromatographic patterns defining a known different organism species; and establishing the species of the unknown organism by means of a conserved set of ribosomal RNA sequence-containing restriction fragments present in the chromatographic pattern of the unknown organism. |