Jul 27, 2022

Public workspaceMultiplex PCR Assay for Clade-typing Salmonella Enteritidis

  • Sarah Gallichan1,2,3,
  • Blanca M. Perez-Sepulveda4,
  • Nicholas A. Feasey3,5,
  • Jay C. D. Hinton4,
  • Anthony M. Smith1,2
  • 1Centre for Enteric Diseases at the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD), Johannesburg, South Africa;
  • 2Department of Clinical Microbiology and Infectious Diseases, School of Pathology, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa;
  • 3Department of Clinical Sciences, Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, Pembroke Place, Liverpool, UK;
  • 4Clinical Infection, Microbiology & Immunology, Institute of Infection, Veterinary & Ecological Sciences (IVES), University of Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom;
  • 5Malawi Liverpool Wellcome Research Programme, Kamuzu University of Health Sciences, Blantyre, Malawi
Icon indicating open access to content
QR code linking to this content
Protocol CitationSarah Gallichan, Blanca M. Perez-Sepulveda, Nicholas A. Feasey, Jay C. D. Hinton, Anthony M. Smith 2022. Multiplex PCR Assay for Clade-typing Salmonella Enteritidis. protocols.io https://dx.doi.org/10.17504/protocols.io.4r3l2ok1jv1y/v1
License: This is an open access protocol distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License,  which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited
Protocol status: Working
We use this protocol and it's working
Created: July 21, 2022
Last Modified: July 27, 2022
Protocol Integer ID: 67219
Keywords: Non-typhoidal Salmonella, Real-time PCR, Phylogeny, Molecular surveillance
Funders Acknowledgement:
German Federal Ministry of Education and Research
Grant ID: BMBF grant number: 81203616
Wellcome Trust Senior Investigator award
Grant ID: grant number: 106914/Z/15/Z
Disclaimer
In respect of the phyletic structure of Salmonella Enteritidis, we have designed primers to distinguish three clades and an outlier cluster in a single reaction. These are henceforth denoted “Regional” and “Clade”. The purpose of the Regional (African or Global classification) and Clade (Global Epidemic, Global Outlier, East or West African classification) assays is to further classify Salmonella Enteritidis isolates to better understand the transmission and epidemiology of each Salmonella Enteritidis clade. The Regional and Clade assays described here are limited to previously confirmed Salmonella Enteritidis isolates.
Abstract
Salmonella Enteritidis is one of the most commonly reported serovars of non-typhoidal Salmonella causing human disease and is responsible for both gastroenteritis and invasive non-typhoidal Salmonella (iNTS) disease worldwide. Whole-genome sequence (WGS) comparison of Salmonella Enteritidis isolates from across the world have identified three distinct clades, named Global Epidemic, Central/East African and West African, all of which have been implicated in epidemics: the Global Epidemic clade was linked to poultry-associated gastroenteritis, while the two African clades were related to iNTS disease. Despite the recognition of different Salmonella Enteritidis clades, the distribution and epidemiology of these clades across Africa is poorly understood because currently identification of these clades requires whole genome sequencing capacity. Here, we developed a sensitive, time- and cost-effective real-time PCR assay capable of differentiating between the Salmonella Enteritidis clades to facilitate surveillance and to inform public health response.
Attachments
Guidelines
In respect of the phyletic structure of S. Enteritidis, we have designed primers to distinguish three clades and an outlier cluster in a single reaction. These are henceforth denoted “Regional” and “Clade”. The purpose of the Regional (African or Global classification) and Clade (Global Epidemic, Global Outlier, East or West African classification) assays is to further classify S. Enteritidis isolates to better understand the transmission and epidemiology of each S. Enteritidis clade. The Regional and Clade assays described here are limited to previously confirmed S. Enteritidis isolates.

References:

1. Page AJ, Cummins CA, Hunt M, Wong VK, Reuter S, Holden MTG, et al. Roary: rapid largescale prokaryote pan genome analysis. Bioinformatics. 2015 Nov 15;31(22):3691–3.
2. Rutledge RG, Co C. Mathematics of quantitative kinetic PCR and the application of standard curves.
Preparation of control panel isolates
Preparation of control panel isolates
Select twelve Salmonella Enteritidis isolates that represent the Global Epidemic, Outlier, East African and West African clades (three biological replicates per clade) predicted by the hierBAPS (hierarchical Bayesian Analysis of Population Structure) algorithm.

CITATION
Feasey NA, Hadfield J, Keddy KH, Dallman TJ, Jacobs J, Deng X, Wigley P, Barquist L, Langridge GC, Feltwell T, Harris SR, Mather AE, Fookes M, Aslett M, Msefula C, Kariuki S, Maclennan CA, Onsare RS, Weill FX, Le Hello S, Smith AM, McClelland M, Desai P, Parry CM, Cheesbrough J, French N, Campos J, Chabalgoity JA, Betancor L, Hopkins KL, Nair S, Humphrey TJ, Lunguya O, Cogan TA, Tapia MD, Sow SO, Tennant SM, Bornstein K, Levine MM, Lacharme-Lora L, Everett DB, Kingsley RA, Parkhill J, Heyderman RS, Dougan G, Gordon MA, Thomson NR (2016). Distinct Salmonella Enteritidis lineages associated with enterocolitis in high-income settings and invasive disease in low-income settings.. Nature genetics.


Streak the twelve selected Salmonella Enteritidis isolates on 5% blood agar (Diagnostic Media Products, Johannesburg, South Africa) plates and incubate DurationOvernight in an IN 750 incubator (Memmert, Schwabach, Germany) at Temperature37 °C .
Incubation
Overnight
Pick single colonies from the blood agar plates and resuspend in Amount400 µL of 10X TE buffer (Amount800 mL distilled water, Amount2.92 g Tris, Amount15.76 g EDTA (Ph8 )) in 2 mL Safe-Lock tubes (Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany).
Preform a genomic DNA extraction using the QIAamp DNA Mini Kit (QIAGEN, Hilden, Germany) according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Designing primers and probes for the Regional- and Clade-typing assays
Designing primers and probes for the Regional- and Clade-typing assays
Analyse the annotated whole genome sequences for the twelve selected Salmonella Enteritidis isolates using ROARY v.3.11.2, to identify genes that can uniquely distinguish the geographical region (Global, which includes the Global and Outlier clade, and African, which includes the East and West African clades) and each clade
CITATION
Page AJ, Cummins CA, Hunt M, Wong VK, Reuter S, Holden MT, Fookes M, Falush D, Keane JA, Parkhill J (2015). Roary: rapid large-scale prokaryote pan genome analysis.. Bioinformatics (Oxford, England).

Use EnteroBase v1.1.3 (accessible online: https://enterobase.warwick.ac.uk/species/senterica/search_strains) Multi locus sequence query to confirm in silico that the selected genes can classify sequenced Salmonella Enteritidis isolates into clades based on the presence and absence of the selected genes.
Design primer and probe sets using the online PrimerQuest tool (Integrated DNA Technology; accessible online: https://eu.idtdna.com/pages/tools/primerquest) using sequences from the selected genes.
Prepare primer and probe sets according to the manufacturer’s recommendations.
Real-time PCR set up
Real-time PCR set up
Dilute primer and probe sets to a concentration of Concentration20 millimolar (mM) using nuclease-free water (Ambion, ThermoFisher Scientific, California, USA).
Create two master mixes, one with the primer and probe sets for the Regional assay (to distinguish between the Global and African regions) and one with the primer and probe sets for the Clade assay (to distinguish between the Global Epidemic, Global Outlier, East and West African).
In a 96-well reaction plate (Applied Biosystems, ThermoFisher Scientific, California, USA), place Amount25 µL of TaqMan Gene Expression Master Mix (ThermoFisher Scientific, California, USA), Amount17.8 µL of nuclease-free water (Ambion, ThermoFisher Scientific, California, USA), Amount3 µL of the relevant Master Mix (depending on whether the Regional/ Clade assay is preformed) and Amount1.2 µL of DNA template in each well.
Seal the reaction plate with MicroAmp® Optical Adhesive Film (Applied Biosystems, Life TechnologiesTM, California, USA) and centrifuged at Centrifigation15000 rpm for Duration00:01:00 using an AllegraTM X-22R Centriuge (Beckman CoulterTM, California, USA) to ensure all reagents are concentrated at the bottom of the wells.
1m
Centrifigation
Load the reaction plate into a 7500 Real Time PCR System (Applied Biosystems, Life TechnologiesTM, California, USA) and set up using the following reaction conditions: Temperature50 °C for Duration00:02:00 , followed by Temperature95 °C for Duration00:10:00 and 40 cycles of Temperature95 °C for Duration00:00:15 , Temperature60 °C for Duration00:00:30 and Temperature72 °C for Duration00:00:30 .

13m 15s
PCR
Assessing performance of the Regional- and Clade-typing assays
Assessing performance of the Regional- and Clade-typing assays
Preform 10-fold serial dilutions on the genomic DNA from two control panel Salmonella Enteritidis isolates that together contain all the target genes.
Quantify the DNA concentrations spectroscopically using a NanoDrop 1000 Spectrophotometer (ThermoFisher Scientific, California, USA).
Set up a real-time PCR assay as described above.
Determine the limit of detection by assessing the DNA concentration yielding the highest Ct (cycle threshold) value under 30 cycles.
Calculate the linear range for the Ct values of the Regional- and Clade-typing assays using the CORREL function in Microsoft Excel 2010.
Plot a calibration curve (depicting the change in cycle threshold value with the change in log DNA concentration) and calculate the amplification efficiency (PCR efficiency = 10-1/slope – 1)
CITATION
Gevertz JL, Dunn SM, Roth CM (2005). Mathematical model of real-time PCR kinetics.. Biotechnology and bioengineering.

Citations
Step 1
Feasey NA, Hadfield J, Keddy KH, Dallman TJ, Jacobs J, Deng X, Wigley P, Barquist L, Langridge GC, Feltwell T, Harris SR, Mather AE, Fookes M, Aslett M, Msefula C, Kariuki S, Maclennan CA, Onsare RS, Weill FX, Le Hello S, Smith AM, McClelland M, Desai P, Parry CM, Cheesbrough J, French N, Campos J, Chabalgoity JA, Betancor L, Hopkins KL, Nair S, Humphrey TJ, Lunguya O, Cogan TA, Tapia MD, Sow SO, Tennant SM, Bornstein K, Levine MM, Lacharme-Lora L, Everett DB, Kingsley RA, Parkhill J, Heyderman RS, Dougan G, Gordon MA, Thomson NR. Distinct Salmonella Enteritidis lineages associated with enterocolitis in high-income settings and invasive disease in low-income settings.
https://doi.org/10.1038/ng.3644
Step 19
Gevertz JL, Dunn SM, Roth CM. Mathematical model of real-time PCR kinetics.
Step 5
Page AJ, Cummins CA, Hunt M, Wong VK, Reuter S, Holden MT, Fookes M, Falush D, Keane JA, Parkhill J. Roary: rapid large-scale prokaryote pan genome analysis.
https://doi.org/10.1093/bioinformatics/btv421