2020•Journal of Clinical MicrobiologyOpen access
Detection and Characterization of Diphtheria Toxin Gene-Bearing Corynebacterium Species through a New Real-Time PCR Assay
Margaret M. Williams, Jessica L. Waller, Janessa S. Aneke, Michael R. Weigand, Maureen H. Diaz, Katherine E. Bowden, Ashley Simon, Yanhui Peng, Lingzi Xiaoli, Pamela K. Cassiday, Jonas M. Winchell, M. Lucia Tondella
Open full text 35 citations
Abstract
Respiratory diphtheria, characterized by a firmly adherent pseudomembrane, is caused by toxin-producing strains of Corynebacterium diphtheriae , with similar illness produced occasionally by toxigenic Corynebacterium ulcerans or, rarely, Corynebacterium pseudotuberculosis . While diphtheria laboratory confirmation requires culture methods to determine toxigenicity, real-time PCR (RT-PCR) provides a faster method to detect the toxin gene ( tox ).