Abstract
Rothia dentocariosa and Rothia mucilaginosa, which are opportunistic pathogens that are capable of causing serious infections, inhabit the oral cavity. However, there is no suitable method for assessing the prevalence of Rothia species in the oral cavity. In this study, four polymerase chain reaction(PCR)primers were designed based on partial sequences of the 16S rDNA genes of the abovementioned oral Rothia species. These primers react to the oral Rothia species and did not react to other Rothia species except Rothia aeria. Moreover, representative non-Rothia oral bacteria displayed negative reactions to these primers. These results indicate that these primers are useful for identifying R. dentocariosa and R. mucilaginosa. We also developed a simple multiplex PCR procedure involving the two primer pairs designed in the present studyas a rapid and reliable method of identifying known oral Rothia species.
