Development of species-specific polymerase chain reaction primers for detection of Fusobacterium periodonticum.

The purpose of this study was to develop species-specific PCR primers for detection of Fusobacterium periodonticum. The specificity data showed that two sets of PCR primers, Fp-F3/Fp-R2 and Fp-F1/Fp-R2 PCR, produced amplicons from all the F. periodonticum, but not from the other species tested, which included 12 Fusobacterium species or subspecies and representative oral bacteria. The sensitivity of the primer sets was 4 or 40 pg of the chromosomal DNA from F. periodonticum ATCC 33693(T) . These results suggest that these two sets of PCR primers are quite sensitive in detection of F. periodonticum in molecular epidemiological studies of periodontitis.