Skip to main content
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1997 May;35(5):1248–1250. doi: 10.1128/jcm.35.5.1248-1250.1997

A PCR assay for identification of Enterococcus faecium.

S Cheng 1, F K McCleskey 1, M J Gress 1, J M Petroziello 1, R Liu 1, H Namdari 1, K Beninga 1, A Salmen 1, V G DelVecchio 1
PMCID: PMC232738  PMID: 9114416

Abstract

Enterococcus faecium has recently emerged as a serious nosocomial pathogen. The prevalence and severity of enterococcal infections, the mortality rate from such infections, and the antibiotic resistance of enterococci are often species dependent. Since conventional biochemical methods fail to differentiate E. faecium from certain newly described enterococcal species, a PCR-based assay was developed for the rapid identification of E. faecium.

Full Text

The Full Text of this article is available as a PDF (131.4 KB).

Selected References

These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.

  1. Coque T. M., Murray B. E. Identification of Enterococcus faecalis strains by DNA hybridization and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Dec;33(12):3368–3369. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.12.3368-3369.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Del Vecchio V. G., Petroziello J. M., Gress M. J., McCleskey F. K., Melcher G. P., Crouch H. K., Lupski J. R. Molecular genotyping of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus via fluorophore-enhanced repetitive-sequence PCR. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Aug;33(8):2141–2144. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.8.2141-2144.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Donabedian S., Chow J. W., Shlaes D. M., Green M., Zervos M. J. DNA hybridization and contour-clamped homogeneous electric field electrophoresis for identification of enterococci to the species level. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Jan;33(1):141–145. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.1.141-145.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Dutka-Malen S., Evers S., Courvalin P. Detection of glycopeptide resistance genotypes and identification to the species level of clinically relevant enterococci by PCR. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Jan;33(1):24–27. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.1.24-27.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Elliott J. A., Facklam R. R., Richter C. B. Whole-cell protein patterns of nonhemolytic group B, type Ib, streptococci isolated from humans, mice, cattle, frogs, and fish. J Clin Microbiol. 1990 Mar;28(3):628–630. doi: 10.1128/jcm.28.3.628-630.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Erlich H. A., Gelfand D., Sninsky J. J. Recent advances in the polymerase chain reaction. Science. 1991 Jun 21;252(5013):1643–1651. doi: 10.1126/science.2047872. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Gordon S., Swenson J. M., Hill B. C., Pigott N. E., Facklam R. R., Cooksey R. C., Thornsberry C., Jarvis W. R., Tenover F. C. Antimicrobial susceptibility patterns of common and unusual species of enterococci causing infections in the United States. Enterococcal Study Group. J Clin Microbiol. 1992 Sep;30(9):2373–2378. doi: 10.1128/jcm.30.9.2373-2378.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Gray J. W., Stewart D., Pedler S. J. Species identification and antibiotic susceptibility testing of enterococci isolated from hospitalized patients. Antimicrob Agents Chemother. 1991 Sep;35(9):1943–1945. doi: 10.1128/aac.35.9.1943. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Holmes D. S., Quigley M. A rapid boiling method for the preparation of bacterial plasmids. Anal Biochem. 1981 Jun;114(1):193–197. doi: 10.1016/0003-2697(81)90473-5. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Livornese L. L., Jr, Dias S., Samel C., Romanowski B., Taylor S., May P., Pitsakis P., Woods G., Kaye D., Levison M. E. Hospital-acquired infection with vancomycin-resistant Enterococcus faecium transmitted by electronic thermometers. Ann Intern Med. 1992 Jul 15;117(2):112–116. doi: 10.7326/0003-4819-117-2-112. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Ruoff K. L., de la Maza L., Murtagh M. J., Spargo J. D., Ferraro M. J. Species identities of enterococci isolated from clinical specimens. J Clin Microbiol. 1990 Mar;28(3):435–437. doi: 10.1128/jcm.28.3.435-437.1990. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Sader H. S., Pfaller M. A., Tenover F. C., Hollis R. J., Jones R. N. Evaluation and characterization of multiresistant Enterococcus faecium from 12 U.S. medical centers. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Nov;32(11):2840–2842. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.11.2840-2842.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Singer D. A., Jochimsen E. M., Gielerak P., Jarvis W. R. Pseudo-outbreak of Enterococcus durans infections and colonization associated with introduction of an automated identification system software update. J Clin Microbiol. 1996 Nov;34(11):2685–2687. doi: 10.1128/jcm.34.11.2685-2687.1996. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Southern E. M. Detection of specific sequences among DNA fragments separated by gel electrophoresis. J Mol Biol. 1975 Nov 5;98(3):503–517. doi: 10.1016/s0022-2836(75)80083-0. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Spera R. V., Jr, Farber B. F. Multiply-resistant Enterococcus faecium. The nosocomial pathogen of the 1990s. JAMA. 1992 Nov 11;268(18):2563–2564. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Teixeira L. M., Facklam R. R., Steigerwalt A. G., Pigott N. E., Merquior V. L., Brenner D. J. Correlation between phenotypic characteristics and DNA relatedness within Enterococcus faecium strains. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Jun;33(6):1520–1523. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.6.1520-1523.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. Tenover F. C., Swenson J. M., O'Hara C. M., Stocker S. A. Ability of commercial and reference antimicrobial susceptibility testing methods to detect vancomycin resistance in enterococci. J Clin Microbiol. 1995 Jun;33(6):1524–1527. doi: 10.1128/jcm.33.6.1524-1527.1995. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

Articles from Journal of Clinical Microbiology are provided here courtesy of American Society for Microbiology (ASM)

RESOURCES