[Taxonomy of the Listeria genus and typing of L. monocytogenes].
The genus Listeria contains six species (L. monocytogenes, L. innocua, L. ivanovii, L. seeligeri, L. welshimeri and L. grayi) among which only L. monocytogenes can cause infections in humans. Typing of L. monocytogenes includes phenotypic methods, serotyping and phage-typing, and molecular methods, mainly ribotyping, multilocus enzyme analysis, DNA micro- and macrorestriction analysis and RAPD (Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA).