Campylobacter spp. are important causes of bacterial gastroenteritis in humans in developed
countries. Among Campylobacter spp. Campylobacter jejuni (C. jejuni)
and C. coli are the most common causes of human infection. In this
study, a multiplex PCR (mPCR) and high resolution melt (HRM) curve analysis was
optimised for simultaneous detection and differentiation of C. jejuni and C.
coli isolates. A segment of the hippuricase
gene (hipO) of C. jejuni and putative aspartokinase (asp) gene of C. coli were amplified from 24 Campylobacter
isolates and amplicons were subjected to HRM curve analysis. The mPCR-HRM was
able to differentiate between C. jejuni and
C. coli species. All DNA amplicons generated by mPCR were sequenced.
Analysis of the nucleotide sequences from each isolate revealed that the HRM
curves were highly correlated with the nucleotide sequences of the amplicons. Minor
variation in melting point temperatures of C.
coli or C. jejuni isolates was
also observed and enabled some intraspecies differentiation between C. coli
and/or C. jejuni isolates. The results indicated that mPCR followed by
HRM curve analysis provides a rapid (8 hours) and robust technique for
differentiation between C. jejuni and
C. coli isolates.