Establishment and Application of a 16SrRNA Polymerase Chain Reaction Assay for Detection of Legionella Species

A 16SrRNA Polymerase Chain reaction(PCR) assay for the detection of Legionella Species was established. A 386bp fragment of the 16SrRNA gene could be detected by amplifing genomic DNA of reference strains(L.Pneumophila1～14、L.bozemanni、L.dumofi、L.longbeachae、L.micdadei、L.jordanis). 9 non-legionella strains couldn't produced a positive am-plified feagment. The sensitive for reference strains and blood were 103 cfu/ml(average) and 102 cfu/ml respectively. This PCRsy stem has been successful in detecting 24 clinical samples, the positive rate was 70.8%(17/24). A bove mentioned result showed that this assay was sensitive, rapid, spesific and easy toper form.