Abstract
Polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to identify Rickettsia prowazekii, the etiologic agent of epidemic typhus. For the PCR, Thermus thermophilus thermostable DNA polymerase was applied with buffer containing a relatively low Mg2+ concentration (1.5–2 mM with dNTP's at 250 μM each). A primer pair used to amplify a 448-base-pair (bp) fragment of R. prowazekii genome was Anethesized on the basis of the DNA sequence of gene rpa14/16, coding for a precursor of the mature polypeptides of molecular weight (Mr) 14,000 and/or 16,000 (16kD) from R. prowazekii strain E. For determining the specificity of the primer pair, purified genomic DNAs of 16 rickettsial and 10 other bacterial strains were used.
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Aniskovich, L.P., Motin, V.L., Lichoded, L.J. et al. Identification of Rickettsia prowazekii using the polymerase chain reaction. Eur J Epidemiol 9, 645–649 (1993). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00211440
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF00211440