SHARED PRIMER PCR COMBINED WITH HYBRIDISATION FOR THE DETECTION OF BORDETELLA PERTUSSIS AND B PARAPERTUSSIS

摘要

A method of detecting Bordetella pertussis and Bordetella parapertussis infection is provided. The method includes amplification of a Bordetella porin gene fragment from a sample such as a human nasopharyngeal aspirate using a Bordetella-specific primer, a Bordetella pertussis-specific primer and a Bordetella parapertussis-specific primer. The presence of the Bordetella gene fragment is then detected by hybridization to a Bordetella-specific probe. If positive, hybridization to a Bordetella pertussis-specific probe and/or a Bordetella parapertussis-specific probe is used to determine whether the porin gene fragment is indicative of Bordetella pertussis and/or Bordetella parapertussis infection. The method of the invention is designed so that errors introduced by amplification are minimized by generating amplification products of similar size and by incorporating amplification of a reference nucleic acid as an internal control.