Rapid and Visual Detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in Aquatic Foods Using blaCARB-17 Gene-Based Loop-Mediated Isothermal Amplification with Lateral Flow Dipstick (LAMP-LFD).

Vibrio parahaemolyticus is recognized as one of the most important foodborne pathogens responsible for gastroenteritis in humans. The blaCARB-17 gene is an intrinsic ß-lactamase gene and a novel species-specific genetic marker of V. parahaemolyticus. In this study, a loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay combined with a lateral flow dipstick (LFD) was developed targeting this blaCARB-17 gene. The specificity of LAMP-LFD was ascertained by detecting V. parahaemolyticus ATCC 17802 and seven other non-V. parahaemolyticus strains. Finally, the practicability of LAMP-LFD was confirmed by detection with V. parahaemolyticus-contaminated samples and natural food samples. The results showed that the optimized reaction parameters of LAMP are as follows: 2.4 mmol/l Mg2+, 0.96 mmol/l dNTPs, 4.8 U Bst DNA polymerase, and an 8:1 ratio of inner primer to outer primer, at 63°C for 40 min. The optimized reaction time of the LFD assay is 60 min. Cross-reactivity analysis with the seven non-V. parahaemolyticus strains showed that LAMP-LFD was exclusively specific for V. parahaemolyticus. The detection limit of LAMP-LFD for V. parahaemolyticus genomic DNA was 2.1 × 10-4 ng/µl, corresponding to 630 fg/reaction and displaying a sensitivity that is 100-fold higher than that of conventional PCR. LAMP-LFD in a spiking study revealed a detection limit of approximately 6 CFU/ml, which was similar with conventional PCR. The developed LAMP-LFD specifically identified the 10 V. parahaemolyticus isolates from 30 seafood samples, suggesting that this LAMP-LFD may be a suitable diagnostic method for detecting V. parahaemolyticus in aquatic foods.

[Sited-directed mutagenesis of hCu, Zn-SOD gene and its expression in Synechococcus sp. PCC7942].

The Cys111 genetic code of human copper/zinc superoxide dismutase (hCu, Zn-SOD) gene in the pESOD plamid was mutated into the Ala111 code with site-directed mutagenesis, and then the plamid pESODT111 which contained groESL promoter, mutated hCu, Zn-SOD gene, rbcS-polyA terminator and reporter gene (Kanr) was constructed and transduced into Synechococcus sp. PCC7942 with homologous recombination platform. The results of PCR and DNA sequence analysis showed that the target nucleotide had been genetically integrated into genome DNA of the host cell. SDS-PAGE, Western blot and Pyrogallol autoxidation assay confirmed that the transformant strains expressed the mutated hCu, Zn-SOD protein. And the level of the mutated hCu, Zn-SOD protein reached a value of 3.61% of the total soluble protein. Furthermore, the transformants still retained 95% activities of SOD after 30 minutes at 80 degrees C environment, it indicated that the mutated hCu, Zn-SOD protein could endure higher temperature than the natural one.