Development and evaluation of a rapid and sensitive RPA assay for specific detection of Vibrio parahaemolyticus in seafood

Background Vibrio parahaemolyticus (V. parahaemolyticus) is a leading cause of food poisoning and is of great importance to public health due to the frequency and seriousness of the diseases. The simple, timely and efficient detection of this pathogen is a major concern worldwide. In this study, we established a simple and rapid method based on recombinase polymerase amplification (RPA) for the determination of V. parahaemolyticus. According to the gyrB gene sequences of V. parahaemolyticus available in GenBank, specific primers and an exo probe were designed for establishing real-time recombinase polymerase amplification (real-time RPA). Results The real-time RPA reaction was performed successfully at 38 °C, and results were obtained within 20 min. The method only detected V. parahaemolyticus and did not show cross-reaction with other bacteria, exhibiting a high level of specificity. The study showed that the detection limit (LOD) of real-time RPA was 1.02 × 102 copies/reaction. For artificially contaminated samples with different bacteria concentrations, V. parahaemolyticus could be detected within 5–12 min by real-time RPA in oyster sauce, codfish and sleeve-fish at concentrations as low as 4 CFU/25 g, 1 CFU/25 g and 7 CFU/25 g, respectively, after enrichment for 6 h, but were detected in a minimum of 35 min by real-time PCR (Ct values between 27 and 32). Conclusion This study describes a simple, rapid, and reliable method for the detection of V. parahaemolyticus, which could potentially be applied in the research laboratory and disease diagnosis.