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Rapid Detection of Staphylococcus aureus in Food Using a Recombinase Polymerase Amplification-Based Assay

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Abstract

Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) is of great importance and is a leading cause of food poisoning, which is a public health concern in terms of the frequency and seriousness of the disease. In the present study, RPA and real-time RPA assays were developed and validated to detect S. aureus with high sensitivity and specificity by targeting the nuc gene for the first time. The analytical sensitivity of real-time RPA was 102 copies/reaction, which was higher than the sensitivity of the real-time PCR method. The analysis time was reduced to 10 min, but this method was as reliable as real-time PCR. Furthermore, the potential use of RPA to detect S. aureus was validated with five different artificially contaminated foods. In conclusion, the RPA and real-time RPA assays developed here, similar to real-time PCR, are rapid and simple and exhibit with high sensitivity and specificity. These assays serve as efficient tools for the detection of S. aureus in less advanced laboratories and are suitable for point-of-care detection.

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Funding

This work was funded by the Natural Science Foundation of Hebei Province (C2017205129), the Research Project of General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine of China (2016IK107), Program for Young Top-notch Talents in Universities of Hebei Province (BJ2016033), Doctoral Foundation of Hebei Normal University (L2016B13), and One Hundred Person Project of Hebei Province (E2016100019).

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Author notes

  1. Yunyun Geng and Siying Liu contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Key Laboratory of Animal Physiology, Biochemistry and Molecular Biology of Hebei Province, College of Life Sciences, Hebei Normal University, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

    Yunyun Geng, Siying Liu, Danyu Li, Ming Liu & Ke Tan

  2. College of Basic Medicine, Hebei University of Chinese Medicine, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

    Yunyun Geng

  3. Center of Inspection and Quarantine, Hebei Entry-Exit Inspection and Quarantine Bureau, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

    Jinfeng Wang, Huizhu Nan, Libing Liu, Xiaoxia Sun & Jianchang Wang

  4. Hebei Academy of Inspection and Quarantine Science and Technology, Shijiazhuang, Hebei, China

    Jinfeng Wang, Huizhu Nan, Libing Liu, Xiaoxia Sun & Jianchang Wang

Authors
  1. Yunyun Geng
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  2. Siying Liu
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  3. Jinfeng Wang
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  4. Huizhu Nan
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  5. Libing Liu
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  6. Xiaoxia Sun
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  7. Danyu Li
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  8. Ming Liu
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  9. Jianchang Wang
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  10. Ke Tan
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Corresponding authors

Correspondence to Jianchang Wang or Ke Tan.

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Conflict of Interest

Yunyun Geng declares that she has no conflict of interest. Siying Liu declares that she has no conflict of interest. Jinfeng Wang declares that she has no conflict of interest. Huizhu Nan declares that she has no conflict of interest. Libing Liu declares that he has no conflict of interest. Xiaoxia Sun declares that she has no conflict of interest. Danyu Li declares that she has no conflict of interest. Ming Liu declares that she has no conflict of interest. Jianchang Wang declares that he has no conflict of interest. Ke Tan declares that he has no conflict of interest.

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This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animal performed by any of the authors.

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Geng, Y., Liu, S., Wang, J. et al. Rapid Detection of Staphylococcus aureus in Food Using a Recombinase Polymerase Amplification-Based Assay. Food Anal. Methods 11, 2847–2856 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-018-1267-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12161-018-1267-1

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