Aw. Paton et al., DIRECT-DETECTION OF ESCHERICHIA-COLI SHIGA-LIKE TOXIN GENES IN PRIMARY FECAL CULTURES BY POLYMERASE CHAIN-REACTION, Journal of clinical microbiology, 31(11), 1993, pp. 3063-3067
A single pair of oligonucleotide primers was used for polymerase chain
reaction amplification of a 212- or 215-bp region of Escherichia coli
Shiga-like toxin (SLT) genes from crude fecal culture extracts. Genes
were typed by hybridization of the polymerase chain reaction products
to SLT-I- or SLT-II-specific oligonucleotide probes. The procedure wa
s capable of detecting fewer than 10 SLT-producing E. coli organisms p
er ml of culture against a background of more than 10(9) other organis
ms per ml and provides a rapid and sensitive means of screening primar
y fecal cultures for the presence of such strains. When this procedure
was used to test primary cultures from gut contents or feces from var
ious patient groups, including apparently healthy infants, approximate
ly half of all samples yielded positive results for SLT-I and/or SLT-I
I sequences.