Open AccessDetection of enterotoxigenic Clostridium perfringens with a duplex PCR
Author(s) -
Ewa Augustynowicz,
Anna Gzyl,
J Slusarczyk
Publication year - 2002
Publication title -
journal of medical microbiology/journal of medical microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.91
H-Index - 117
eISSN - 1473-5644
pISSN - 0022-2615
DOI - 10.1099/0022-1317-51-2-169
Subject(s) - enterotoxin , clostridium perfringens , microbiology and biotechnology , biology , clostridiaceae , serology , polymerase chain reaction , virology , toxin , bacteria , gene , antibody , immunology , escherichia coli , genetics
Two sets of primers designed to detect Clostridium perfringens phospholipase C (plc) and enterotoxin (cpe) genes in a single PCR reaction were applied to a collection of 64 predominantly food poisoning-related C. perfringens isolates. In-vitro enterotoxin synthesis was tested serologically after inducing sporulation. Of the 64 isolates, 26 were clearly enterotoxigenic; 16 were classified as potentially enterotoxigenic only as serological testing did not confirm enterotoxin production. Duplex PCR for diagnosis of enterotoxigenic C. perfringens from vegetative cultures can be a useful tool as fresh isolates often sporulate poorly or not all, giving rise to the possibility of false negative results by serological analysis.