Identification of Listeria innocua by PCR targeting a putative transcriptional regulator gene

Listeria innocua is a common, non-pathogenic bacterial species that shares morphological, biochemical and molecular characteristics with the pathogenic species L. monocytogenes. The presence of L. innocua may cause difficulty or confusion in the laboratory identification of L. monocytogenes or other Listeria spp. In this report, through examining the recently published genome sequence of L. innocua strain CLIP 11262 (serovar 6a), we identified a L. innocua-specific gene (lin0464) encoding a putative transcriptional regulator and evaluated its efficacy for species-specific detection by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The specificity of the oligonucleotide primers (lin0464F and lin0464R) derived from this gene was confirmed with the formation of a 749-bp fragment in PCR from genomic DNA of L. innocua strains only. We expect that this assay will be useful in confirming identification of L. innocua or in studies where rapid detection of L. innocua is necessary.