Molecular Detection and Identification of Intimin Alleles in Pathogenic Escherichia coli by Multiplex PCR

A multiplex PCR was designed to detect the eae gene and simultaneously identify specific alleles in pathogenic Escherichia coli. The method was tested on 87 strains representing the diarrheagenic E. coli clones. The results show that the PCR assay accurately detects eae and resolves alleles encoding the α, β, and γ intimin variants.