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

A 165rRNA polymerasse chain reaction CPCR) assay for the detection of Le- gionella Species was established. A 375 bp fragment of the 16SrRNA gene could be detected by amplifing genomic DNA of reference strains (Lp1-14, Lm, L1, Ld, Lb, Lg). The same result was also obtained by amplifing 5 identified strains isolated from China. The amplified products were verified by hybridization with 16SrRNA gene probes. However, 14 non-legionella strains could't produced a positive amplified fragment. Preparing bacterial genomic DNA by boiling method,the assay could detect 280cfu/ml water and 560 cfu/ml clinical bronchial fluid respectively. Above- mentioned result showed that this assay was sensitive、rapid、specific and easy to perform.