Multiplex PCR for Simultaneous Detection of Virulence Genes in Escherichia coli

Diarrhea caused by Escherichia coli infection is a major cause of public health problems in developing countries. In view of the deficits and limitations of conventional methods of detecting the virulence determinants, a multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay was optimized and developed to...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Thong, Kwai Lin, Yu, Ke Xin
Format: Article
Language:en
Published: Faculty of Science, University of Malaya 2009
Subjects:
Online Access:http://eprints.um.edu.my/5657/1/Multiplex_PCR_for_simultaneous_detection_of_virulence_Genes_in_Escherichia_coli.pdf
http://eprints.um.edu.my/5657/
https://mjs.um.edu.my/index.php/MJS/article/view/7682/5277
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Diarrhea caused by Escherichia coli infection is a major cause of public health problems in developing countries. In view of the deficits and limitations of conventional methods of detecting the virulence determinants, a multiplex Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) assay was optimized and developed to provide an effective, rapid and specific diagnostic tool to simultaneously detect virulence genes such as heatstable toxin 1 (ST1), heat-labile toxin 1 (LT1), heat-labile toxin 2 (LT2), verotoxin1 (VT1), verotoxin 2 (VT2) and attachment and effacement (eaeA) in pathogenic E. coli. Five sets of primers targeting these six virulence genes were optimized by using postitive control E. coli strains. The optimized conditions consisted of 3.0 mM of MgCl2, 0.2 mM of dNTPs, 1.5 U of Taq DNA polymerase (Promega), 0.70 µM of VT primer, 0.60 µM of LT2 primer and 0.07 µM each of LT1 primer, ST primer and AE primer. The mPCR assay was then applied to a panel of 87 E. coli isolates from different sources. One food isolate (EC 375) was positive for eaeA gene while another environmental isolate had ST, LT1, eaeA and VT genes. The study shows that the mPCR assay is a useful tool to differentiate the pathogenic potential (pathotypes) of E. coli by presence of known virulence genes.