Chaetomium spp. are common colonizers of soil and cellulose-containing substrates. Seventeen isolates of Chaetomium spp., which included 15 isolates of C. globosum and one each of C. reflexum and C. perlucidum , were genetically characterized with universal rice primers (URP - primers derived from DNA repeat sequences in the rice genome) using polymerase chain reaction (URP-PCR). Out of the 12 URP's used in the study, nine primers were effective in producing polymorphic fingerprint patterns from DNA of Chaetomium spp . Analysis of the entire fingerprint profile using the unweighted pair-group method with arithmetic averages (UPGMA) clearly differentiated C. globosum isolates from C. perlucidum and C. reflexum . One of the primers, URP-2R, produced a uniform DNA band of 1.9 kb in all the isolates of C. globosum but not in C. perlucidum and C. reflexum , which can be used as molecular marker to differentiate C. globosum from other species. Our results indicate that URP's are sensitive and give reproducible results for assaying the genetic variability in Chaetomium spp.