P. intermedia are considered an important pathogen in adult periodontitis, rapidly progressing periodontitis, refractory periodontitis, pregnancy gingivitis, acute necrotizing ulcerative gingivitis, pubertal gingivitis. So far 2 DNA homology groups and 3 serotypes of P. intermedia have been reported but there is no data available as yet regarding genetic diversity for the species P. intermedia. The purpose of this study is to investigate, using bacterial DNA restriction endonuclease analysis, genetic diversity between individual strains of P. intermedia which are indistinguishable by serotyping and biotyping, occurrence of an intrafamilial transmission and genetic heterogeneity between P. intermedia strains isolated within a patient and within the same serotypes. The families who have had no systemic disease, no experience of periodontal treatment for the previous 1 year and no experience of antibiotics for the previous 6 months were selected and subgingival plaque was collected at 4 sites in each person and incubated in the anaerobic chamber. P. intermedia were identified by colony shape, gram stain, biochemical test, SK-I03(Sunstar Inc.) test and IIF using monoclonal antibody was perfomed for the determination of serotypes. P. intermedia strains were grown in BHI broth and whole genomic DNA was extracted and digested by restriction endonuclease. The resulting DNA fragments were separated by agarose gel electrophoresis, stained and photographed under UV. As the results of this study, intrafamilial vertial transmissions could be assessed in 2 families and horizintal transmissions in another 2 families. There were different DNA digest patterns within a patient, so P. intermedia showed that individuals could be colonized by multiple clonal types at anyone time. And different serotypes could be found within a patient and in the same serotype within a patient, obvius genetic heterogeneity could not be assessed. But in the same serotype in different famies, there were differences in the DNA digest patterns.