Full Length Research Paper

Application of polymerase chain reaction to differentiate between strains of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli

Bin Jasass, F. M.¹* and Park, S. F.²

¹King Abdulaziz City for Science and Technology.  Box 6068, Riyadh 11411, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.  ²University of Surrey, School of Biomedical and Molecular Science, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH, UK.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: aljasass@kacst.edu.sa. Tel: 966 (1) 4813373.  Fax: 966 (1) 4813878.

Accepted 16 June, 2009

   Abstract

A polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay was used to identify and differentiate between strains of Campylobacter jejuni and Campylobacter coli. Nine Campylobacter reference strains; C. jejuni NCTC 11168, C. jejuni NCTC 11322, C. jejuni NCTC 11828, Campylobacter coli NCTC 12110, C. coli NCTC 11437, C. coli NCTC 11350, C. coli NCTC 11366, C. coli NCTC 11438, and C. coli UA585were included in the assay. DNA primers derived from the genes VAC and SADC were used. PCR amplification of C. coli UA585 DNA with consensus sequence primers VAC1 and VAC2 resulted in a single DNA fragment of ~ 705 bp. The forward primer SADC1 and the reverse primer SADC2 amplified a ~ 1750 bp product of C. jejuni NCTC 11168 and C. jejuni NCTC 11828.  A band of ~ 705 bp was also amplified from C. coli UA585 with the two pairs of primers SADC1 and SADC2. The results showed that oligonucleotides primers of VAC and SADC genes can be useful to identify C. jejuni and C. coli.

Key words: Campylobacter jejuni, Campylobacter coli, polymerase chain reaction.