Nucleic acid probes for species-specific detection of infectious bacteria

摘要

The invention relates to improved nucleic acid probes and to broad-range primers that are useful in the identification of bacterial species and the diagnosis of bacterial infections. Especially, the invention relates to specific nucleic acid probes that originate from hyper-variable regions situated between the conserved sequences of topoisomerase genes, gyrB and parE, of infection-causing bacteria. The invention also relates to improved broad-range primers originating from the conserved regions of topoisomerase genes. In addition, the invention relates to the use of these improved nucleic acid probes and broad-range primers in the diagnosis of bacterial infections as well as to methods in which these nucleic acid probes and broad-range primers are used.