Screening of specific target sequences for the PCR detection of Staphylococcus aureus by automatic genomic comparison

Abstract:

The aim of this study was to establish a fast and accurate method for developing specific DNA sequences and PCR primers for the detection of Staphylococcus aureus. An automatic C++ program for genomic comparison was used to identify specific DNA sequences from the genome of S. aureus MRSA 252. Four primer pairs were obtained from 9 specific target sequences by comparison of 2656 coding sequences with our local genome database, and 2 pairs of primers were confirmed to be specific to S. aureus by PCR evaluation against 137 bacterial strains, including 11 species of Staphylococcus. Furthermore, the DNA detection sensitivity of primer SA3 was 13.7 fg/μL and the cell sensitivity for this primer was 9.25×102 CFU/mL. This method has overcome the limitations of specific target mining in conventional assays, and it could be easily and widely used for other foodborne pathogens.