Updated Campylobacter jejuni Capsule PCR Multiplex Typing System and Its Application to Clinical Isolates from South and Southeast Asia

Campylobacter jejuni produces a polysaccharide capsule that is the major determinant of the Penner serotyping scheme. This passive slide agglutination typing system was developed in the early 1980’s and was recognized for over two decades as the gold standard for C. jejuni typing. A preliminary multiplex PCR technique covering 17 serotypes was previously developed in order to replace this classic serotyping scheme. Here we report the completion of the multiplex PCR technology that is able to identify all the 47 Penner serotypes types known for C. jejuni. The number of capsule types represented within the 47 serotypes is 35. We have applied this method to a collection of 996 clinical isolates from Thailand, Cambodia and Nepal and were able to successfully determine capsule types of 98% of these.