Establishment and Application of a 5SrRNA Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay for Detection of Legionella Species

A 5SrRNA Polymerase Chain reaction(PCR)assays for the detection of Legionella Species was established.A 104bp fragment of the 5SrRNA gene could be detected by amplifing genetic DNA of reference strains(Lp1～14、Lb、Ld、Ll、Lm、Lj).9 non legionella strains could not produce a positive amplified fragment.The sensitive for reference strains and blood were 8.5*10²cfu/ml(average)and 10²cfu/ml respectively.This PCR system has been successful in detecting 17 clinical samples,the positive rate were 58.8% (10/17).Above mentioned result showed that this assay was sensitive,rapid,specific and easy to perform.