Molecular detection and identification of intimin alleles in pathogenic Escherichia coli by multiplex PCR

A multiplex PCR was designed to detect the eae gene and simultaneously iden tify specific alleles in pathogenic Escherichia coli. The method was tested on 87 strains representing the diarrheagenie E. coli clones. The results s how that the PCR assay accurately detects eae and resolves alleles encoding the alpha, beta, and gamma intimin variants.