Bacterial strains were isolated from samples of Japanese rice vinegar (komesu) and unpolished rice vinegar (kurosu) fermented by the traditional static method. Fermentations have never been inoculated with a pure culture since they were started in 1907. A total of 178 isolates were divided into groups A and B on the basis of enterobacterial repetitive intergenic consensus-PCR and random amplifi...

The purpose of this article is to review the status of DNA assays used for the detection, identification, and individualization of Bacillus anthracis, Yersinia pestis, Francisella tularensis, Burkholderia mallei, and Brucella abortus. These select agent microorganisms are historically significant as they have either been used or experimented with as a bioweapon or as a terrorist agent and are t...

This case study illustrates the usefulness of the DNA fingerprinting method in biobank quality control (QC) procedures and emphasizes the need for detailed and accurate record keeping during processing of biological samples. It also underlines the value of independent third-party assessment to identify points at which errors are most likely to have occurred when unexpected results are obtained ...

OBJECTIVE This study was undertaken to identify HBB gene mutation. DESIGN AND METHODS Herein we evaluated high-resolution melting analysis in the identification of HBB mutations. RESULTS We have successfully established a diagnostic strategy for identifying HBB gene mutations including c.-78A>G, c.-79A>G, c.2T>G, c.79_80insT, c.84_85insC, c.123_124insT, c.125_128delTCTT, c.130 G>T, c.170G>A...

Perdita texana is a facultatively communal bee species with up to 28 females per nest. We used multilocus DNA fingerprinting to test the hypothesis that nestmates are more closely related to each other than are nonnestmates. The mean band sharing proportion among pairwise nestmate comparisons did not differ significantly from the mean among nonnestmate comparisons [P = 0.787 (df = 484)]. Althou...

Three Formosan subterranean termite, Coptotermes formosanus Shiraki (Isoptera: Rhinotermitidae), colonies located inside the 12.75-ha Louis Armstrong Park, New Orleans, were selected for elimination by using the chitin synthesis inhibitor hexaflumuron. Once eliminated, each vacated foraging territory was monitored for reinvasion by neighboring C. formosanus colonies, Reticulitermnes flavipes (K...

A highly sensitive and selective method for amplified electrochemical detection for hairpin-stem-loop structured target sequences was developed based on the temperature regulation of DNA hybrids on a sandwich-type electrochemical DNA sensor. Multistep hybridization was applied to promote the hybridization efficiency of each section of sandwich structure. The results showed that both multistep a...

A novel DNA scaffold, called a DNA slit, was designed for the programmed positioning of Au nanoparticles (AuNPs), and various patterns of thiolated DNA slits were constructed. AuNPs were correctly placed at the predesigned positions in the thiolated DNA slits, indicating that the thiolated staples and the slit cavities guide the correct assembly of AuNPs.

One of the major quality assurance (QA) goals in many molecular laboratories is to avoid sample pipetting errors on the lab bench; especially when pipetting into multiwell plates. A pipetting error can cause a switch in patient samples, which can lead to recording the wrong results for the patient samples involved. Such pipetting errors are difficult to identify when it happens in lab bench wor...

We determined that resistance to ciprofloxacin has emerged in enterococci over the last 5 years in our hospital, mainly in strains demonstrating the phenotype of high-level gentamicin resistance. All high-level-gentamicin-resistant isolates from 1985 and 1986 were susceptible, whereas 24% of isolates from 1989 and 1990 were resistant to ciprofloxacin. Plasmid and genomic DNA typing showed at le...