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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Pullman, Washington » Animal Disease Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #151903
Title: LISTERIA MONOCYTOGENES SEROTYPE IDENTIFICATION BY PCR

Author
item Borucki, Monica
item CALL, DOUGLAS - WASHINGTON STATE UNIV.

Submitted to: Journal of Clinical Microbiology
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/28/2003
Publication Date: 12/1/2003
Citation: Borucki, M.K., Call, D.R. 2003. Listeria monocytogenes Serotype Identification by PCR. Journal of Clinical Microbiology. 41(12):5537-5540.

Interpretive Summary: This manuscript describes the design and testing of PCR primers for the serotyping of Listeria monocytogenes strains. Four primer sets were designed and tested on a panel of 122 L. monocytogenes strains. Specificity and sensitivity of the primers was between 94-100%. This method of serotyping gave similar results to the conventional agglutination method but is more rapid, inexpensive, and easy to interpret.

Technical Abstract: Serotyping is a universally accepted subtyping method for Listeria monocytogenes. Identification of strain serotype permits differentiation between important food-borne strains (1/2a, 1/2b, 4b) and provides a gold standard for comparing isolates analyzed in different labs and with different techniques. Although an efficient ELISA serotyping protocol was described recently, identification of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) serotyping primers would further increase the ease and accessibility of this classification system. Serotyping PCR primers were designed from variable regions of the L. monocytogenes genome. Three primer sets were used in conjunction with a previously described Division III primer set to classify 122 L. monocytogenes strains into five serotype groups (1/2a(3a), 1/2b, 1/2c(3c), 4b(d,e), 4a/c). The PCR method agreed with conventional slide agglutination method for 97%, 100%, 94%, and 100% of strains belonging to serotypes 1/2a, 1/2b, 1/2c, and 4b, respectively.