Patent ID: 8557524

Claim:
A method of detecting methiceillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) in a sample, wherein said sample contains one or a mixture of bacterial species, said method comprising: (a) amplifying a mecA polynucleotide sequence to produce an amplified mecA polynucleotide sequence; (b) determining a cycle threshold (CT) value of said amplified mecA polynucleotide sequence; (c) amplifying a bridging region polynucleotide sequence from said sample to produce an amplified bridging region polynucleotide sequence; (d) determining a CT value of said amplified bridging region polynucleotide sequence; (e) amplifying an S. aureus -specific polynucleotide sequence to produce an amplified S. aureus -specific polynucleotide sequence; (f) determining a CT value of said amplified S. aureus -specific polynucleotide sequence, wherein said S. aureus -specific polynucleotide sequence is not an orfX polynucieotide sequence, (g) comparing said CT values of said amplified mecA, amplified bridging region, and amplified S. aureus -specific polynucleotide sequences to each other, wherein if said CT values of each of said amplified mecA polynueleotide, said amplified bridging region polynueleotide, and said amplified S. aureus -specific polynucleotide sequences are within a predetermined range to each other, then MRSA is present in said sample.