A combined polymerase chain reaction and restriction endonuclease enzyme assay for discriminating between Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni.

A combined polymerase chain reaction and restriction endonuclease (RE) enzyme assay was developed to discriminate between Campylobacter coli and Campylobacter jejuni. Amplimers of the FlaA gene obtained by PCR were digested with AluI and HinfI to distinguish C. coli from C. jejuni. With AluI digestion C. jejuni-specific bands were observed at 110, 140 and 160 bp and C. coli-specific bands at 293 and 147 bp. C. jejuni-specific bands of 349 and 109 bp were found by HinfI digestion but HinfI did not digest the FlaA amplimer of C. coli. This combined technique is fast and easy to perform, and distinguishes the two campylobacters unequivocally.