Introduction & Objective: So far, despite the wide range of methods such as analytic methods used for differentiation of Mycoplasma, the diagnosis of Mycoplasma species is still difficult. Generally the low-level discriminatory power of serological methods because of the rapid changes in size and phase of the dominant antigens in the immune cell surface of Mycoplasmas greatly limits their applicability to the typing of Mycoplasmas. On the contrary,molecular methods do not suffer from these drawbacks and can be used for typing of Mycoplasmas. The aim of this investigation was molecular identification and genotyping of ureaplasma SPP in women with genital infections by 16S–23S rDNA PCR-RFLP. Materials & Methods: Genital swabs were taken from 210 patients who referred to gynecology clinic of Rasool hospital in Tehran, Iran during December 2007 until June 2008. The swabs suspended in PBS, were immediately transferred to laboratory .Following DNA extraction, PCR assay was performed using a genus specific primer pair. These primer sets amplified a 559 bp fragment for Ureaplasma Spp. Samples containing bands of the expected size for Ureaplasma strains were subjected to digestion with different restriction endonuclease enzymes (AluI, Taq I, CacI8, BbsI, EcoRI).

Results: Of the 210 samples, Ureaplasma Spp was isolated from 93 patients (44.3%) by PCR and 69 samples by culture. In the present study only Biovar 1 (Ureaplasma parvum) was isolated from clinical specimens and the results were confirmed using a cutting enzyme TaqI (enzyme specific species of ureaplasma SPP). The results of this analysis using PCR-RFLP and sequencing showed that all had the same genotype and shared identical sequence with the genome sequence of serovar 3 Ureaplasma parvum.

Conclusion: Ureaplasma parvum is generally isolated from the genital samples. In this study all isolates were identical and no difference was found among the enzyme patterns of the bacteria after PCR-RFLP .So, genetic heterogeneity was not observed here and infections were due to the dissemination of a single strain of Biovar 1 (Ureaplasma parvum). PCR-RFLP offers a sensitive, rapid and easily applicable protocol for detection and typing of Ureaplasma SPP from clinical samples.