Rapid and sensitive detection of Plesiomonas shigelloides by loop-mediated isothermal amplification of the hugA gene

PLoS One. 2012;7(10):e41978. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0041978. Epub 2012 Oct 15.

Abstract

Plesiomonas shigelloides is one of the causative agents of human gastroenteritis, with increasing number of reports describing such infections in recent years. In this study, the hugA gene was chosen as the target to design loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assays for the rapid, specific, and sensitive detection of P. shigelloides. The performance of the assay with reference plasmids and spiked human stools as samples was evaluated and compared with those of quantitative PCR (qPCR). No false-positive results were observed for the 32 non-P. shigelloides strains used to evaluate assay specificity. The limit of detection for P. shigelloides was approximately 20 copies per reaction in reference plasmids and 5×10(3) CFU per gram in spiked human stool, which were more sensitive than the results of qPCR. When applied in human stool samples spiked with 2 low levels of P. shigelloides, the LAMP assays achieved accurate detection after 6-h enrichment. In conclusion, the LAMP assay developed in this study is a valuable method for rapid, cost-effective, and simple detection of P. shigelloides in basic clinical and field laboratories in the rural areas of China.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Bacterial Proteins / genetics*
  • Base Sequence
  • Colony Count, Microbial
  • DNA Primers
  • Feces / microbiology
  • Genes, Bacterial*
  • Limit of Detection
  • Plesiomonas / genetics
  • Plesiomonas / isolation & purification*
  • Polymerase Chain Reaction
  • Reproducibility of Results

Substances

  • Bacterial Proteins
  • DNA Primers

Grants and funding

This work was supported by the National Science and Technology Key Project on Major Infectious Diseases (2008ZX10004-001, 2009ZX10004-101, 2011ZX10004-001). The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.