Subspecies-Specific Nested PCR Assay for Detection of Lactococcus lactis spp. lactis and spp. cremoris

A nested PCR-based assay composed of Lactococcus lactis species-specific primers for the nest 1 amplification and subspecies-specific primers for the nest 2 amplification was validated with the identified strains of L. lactis isolated from dairy and nondairy sources and positive and negative control strains. Forward and reverse primer set was designed for nest 1 amplification targeting the conserved housekeeping gene yueF encoding nonproteolytic protein from peptidase family M16 of L. lactis. Amplicons of 447 bp of yueF were subjected for nest 2 amplification producing amplicons of 372 bp. The designed outer primer set for nest 1 amplification was observed to be specific to L. lactis because the DNA from other bacteria could not be amplified and the inner primer set for nest 2 amplification was found to be specific for the detection of ssp. lactis and cremoris of L. lactis.