title: Development of species-specific primers for detection of Streptococcus mutans in mixed bacterial samples.
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 x 10(3) 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.
authors.affiliation: College of Dentistry, New York University, New York, NY 10010, USA.
authors.forename: Zhou
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Chen
authors.forename: Deepak
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Saxena
authors.forename: Page W
authors.initials: PW
authors.lastname: Caufield
authors.forename: Yao
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Ge
authors.forename: Minqi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Yihong
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Li
mesh_terms: D017931:DNA Primers; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D008969:Molecular Sequence Data; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012463:Saliva / Q000382:microbiology*; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013045:Species Specificity; D013290:Streptococcal Infections / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000382:microbiology*; D013291:Streptococcus / Q000235:genetics; D013295:Streptococcus mutans / Q000235:genetics* / Q000302:isolation & purification*; D016986:Streptococcus sobrinus / Q000235:genetics
chemical_list: D017931:DNA Primers