Skip to main content
PMC home page
Journal of Clinical Microbiology logoLink to Journal of Clinical Microbiology
. 1994 Aug;32(8):1935–1938. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.8.1935-1938.1994

Use of PCR to study epidemiology of Serratia marcescens isolates in nosocomial infection.

P Y Liu 1, Y J Lau 1, B S Hu 1, J M Shir 1, M H Cheung 1, Z Y Shi 1, W S Tsai 1
PMCID: PMC263906  PMID: 7989546

Abstract

A method to characterize strains of Serratia marcescens based on the PCR amplification of enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus sequences has been developed. The PCR fingerprints were generated from boiled supernatants prepared directly from bacterial colonies without the need for DNA extraction. The technique was applied to isolates obtained during an outbreak of pneumonia from seven mechanically ventilated patients, and its result indicated that the outbreak was due to the spread of two epidemic strains. This technique was validated by comparison with rRNA gene restriction analysis. There was complete concordance between these two techniques in discriminating the outbreak-related strains from epidemiologically unrelated isolates. Typing with both biochemical profile and antibiogram profile, though simple, was found to be less reliable than genotyping. The results show that this enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus PCR provides a rapid and simple means of typing S. marcescens isolates for epidemiologic studies.

Full text

PDF
1935

Images in this article

1937Image
on p.1937

Selected References

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

  1. Alonso R., Aucken H. M., Perez-Diaz J. C., Cookson B. D., Baquero F., Pitt T. L. Comparison of serotype, biotype and bacteriocin type with rDNA RFLP patterns for the type identification of Serratia marcescens. Epidemiol Infect. 1993 Aug;111(1):99–107. doi: 10.1017/s0950268800056727. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  2. Anagnostakis D., Fitsialos J., Koutsia C., Messaritakis J., Matsaniotis N. A nursery outbreak of Serratia marcescens infection. Evidence of a single source of contamination. Am J Dis Child. 1981 May;135(5):413–414. doi: 10.1001/archpedi.1981.02130290011005. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  3. Bingen E. H., Mariani-Kurkdjian P., Lambert-Zechovsky N. Y., Desjardins P., Denamur E., Aujard Y., Vilmer E., Elion J. Ribotyping provides efficient differentiation of nosocomial Serratia marcescens isolates in a pediatric hospital. J Clin Microbiol. 1992 Aug;30(8):2088–2091. doi: 10.1128/jcm.30.8.2088-2091.1992. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  4. Elaichouni A., Verschraegen G., Claeys G., Devleeschouwer M., Godard C., Vaneechoutte M. Pseudomonas aeruginosa serotype O12 outbreak studied by arbitrary primer PCR. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Mar;32(3):666–671. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.3.666-671.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  5. Grattard F., Pozzetto B., Berthelot P., Rayet I., Ros A., Lauras B., Gaudin O. G. Arbitrarily primed PCR, ribotyping, and plasmid pattern analysis applied to investigation of a nosocomial outbreak due to Enterobacter cloacae in a neonatal intensive care unit. J Clin Microbiol. 1994 Mar;32(3):596–602. doi: 10.1128/jcm.32.3.596-602.1994. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  6. Grimont P. A., Grimont F., Le Minor S., Davis B., Pigache F. Compatible results obtained from biotyping and serotyping in Serratia marcescens. J Clin Microbiol. 1979 Oct;10(4):425–432. doi: 10.1128/jcm.10.4.425-432.1979. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  7. Jordens J. Z., Leaves N. I., Anderson E. C., Slack M. P. Polymerase chain reaction-based strain characterization of noncapsulate Haemophilus influenzae. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Nov;31(11):2981–2987. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.11.2981-2987.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  8. Pitt T. L. State of the art: typing of Serratia marcescens. J Hosp Infect. 1982 Mar;3(1):9–14. doi: 10.1016/0195-6701(82)90026-3. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  9. Salvi R. J., Ahroon W., Saunders S. S., Arnold S. A. Evoked potentials: computer-automated threshold-tracking procedure using an objective detection criterion. Ear Hear. 1987 Jun;8(3):151–156. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  10. Schaberg D. R., Alford R. H., Anderson R., Farmer J. J., 3rd, Melly M. A., Schaffner W. An outbreak of nosocomial infection due to multiply resistant Serratia marcescens: evidence of interhospital spread. J Infect Dis. 1976 Aug;134(2):181–188. doi: 10.1093/infdis/134.2.181. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  11. Simor A. E., Ramage L., Wilcox L., Bull S. B., Bialkowska-Hobrzanska H. Molecular and epidemiologic study of multiresistant Serratia marcescens infections in a spinal cord injury rehabilitation unit. Infect Control. 1988 Jan;9(1):20–27. [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  12. Smith P. J., Brookfield D. S., Shaw D. A., Gray J. An outbreak of Serratia marcescens infections in a neonatal unit. Lancet. 1984 Jan 21;1(8369):151–153. doi: 10.1016/s0140-6736(84)90074-6. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  13. Struelens M. J., Carlier E., Maes N., Serruys E., Quint W. G., van Belkum A. Nosocomial colonization and infection with multiresistant Acinetobacter baumannii: outbreak delineation using DNA macrorestriction analysis and PCR-fingerprinting. J Hosp Infect. 1993 Sep;25(1):15–32. doi: 10.1016/0195-6701(93)90005-k. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  14. Versalovic J., Koeuth T., Lupski J. R. Distribution of repetitive DNA sequences in eubacteria and application to fingerprinting of bacterial genomes. Nucleic Acids Res. 1991 Dec 25;19(24):6823–6831. doi: 10.1093/nar/19.24.6823. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  15. Welsh J., McClelland M. Fingerprinting genomes using PCR with arbitrary primers. Nucleic Acids Res. 1990 Dec 25;18(24):7213–7218. doi: 10.1093/nar/18.24.7213. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  16. Yu V. L. Serratia marcescens: historical perspective and clinical review. N Engl J Med. 1979 Apr 19;300(16):887–893. doi: 10.1056/NEJM197904193001604. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
  17. van Belkum A., Bax R., Peerbooms P., Goessens W. H., van Leeuwen N., Quint W. G. Comparison of phage typing and DNA fingerprinting by polymerase chain reaction for discrimination of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus strains. J Clin Microbiol. 1993 Apr;31(4):798–803. doi: 10.1128/jcm.31.4.798-803.1993. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]

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

RESOURCES