Specific and universal probes and amplification primers to rapidly detect and identify common bacterial pathogens and antibiotic resistance genes from clinical specimens for routine diagnosis in microbiology laboratories

The present invention relates to DNA-based methods for. universal bacterial detection, for. specific detection of the pneumonias ,. Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Proteus mira-bllls, Streptococcus pneumonlae ,. Staphylococcus aureus, Staphylococcus. epldermldis, Enterococcus faecalls,. Staphylococcus saprophytlcus. Streptococcus pyogenes, Haemophilus Influenzae. and Moraxella catarrhalls, as well as for. specific detection of common and clinically relevant bacterial. antibiotic resistance genes directly from. clinical trials, or alternatively from. a bacterial colony. Those mentioned above. Bacterial species can make up as much as. 80% of bacterial pathogens isolated in microbiology laboratories by routine. investigations. The core of this invention consists essentially of the DNA sequences of all species-specific genomic DNA fragments selected by hybridization from genomic libraries, or alternatively selected from data banks, as well. any oligonucleotide sequences derived from these sequences which may. used as probes or amplification primers for PCR or any other nucleic acid amplification methods. This invention also encompasses DNA sequences from the selected clinically relevant antibiotic resistance genes.