Development of species-specific primers for detection of Streptococcus mutans in mixed bacterial samples

Zhou Chen, Deepak Saxena, Page W. Caufield, Yao Ge, Minqi Wang, Yihong Li

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

Abstract

Streptococcus mutans is the major microbial pathogen associated with dental caries in children. The objectives of this study were to design and evaluate species-specific primers for the identification of S. mutans. Validation of the best primer set, Sm479F/R, was performed using seven S. mutans reference strains, 48 ATCC non-S. mutans strains, 92 S. mutans clinical isolates, DNA samples of S. mutans-Streptococcus sobrinus or S. mutans-Streptococcus sanguinis, and mixed bacterial DNA of saliva samples from 33 18-month-old children. All of the S. mutans samples tested positive, and no PCR products were amplified from members of the other streptococci or nonstreptococci strains examined. The lowest detection level for PCR was 10-2 ng of S. mutans DNA (c. 4.6 × 103 copies) in the test samples. The results of this study suggest that the Sm479F/R primer pair is highly specific and sensitive for identification of S. mutans in either purified or mixed DNA samples.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Pages (from-to)154-162
Number of pages9
JournalFEMS Microbiology Letters
Volume272
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - Jul 2007

Keywords

  • Dental caries
  • PCR
  • Species-specific primer
  • Streptococcus mutans

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Microbiology
  • Molecular Biology
  • Genetics

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