Identification of Selected Campylobacter Spp. Using the ARMS Technique

Abstract

The precise identification of unusual members of the genus Campylobacter is often problematic⁷. By and large, speciation is based on a few phenotypic tests that are not always reliable⁷. Alternative tools for identifying species are based on the genotype rather than on the phenotype of an organism. Genotypic methods have been used to discriminate the thermophilic Campylobacter species^1,2. Recently, a simple PCR-based method, the Amplification Refractory Mutation System (ARMS), for the characterization of DNA polymorphisms was described⁵. Where species specific base differences can be identified, the authors suggest that the technique might prove useful in the speciation of bacteria. The work described here evaluates ARMS in the identification of C.mucosalis, C.concisus and C.curvus, species that are impossible to differentiate by phenotypic tests alone⁴.