A Chlamydophila psittaci species-specific real-time PCR targeting the rDNA ribosomal spacer was developed as well as a genotype-specific real-time PCR targeting the Cp. psittaci outer membrane protein A (ompA) gene. The SYBR Green-based species-specific real-time PCR detected Cp. psittaci genotypes A to F, and the recently discovered E/B genotype. The genotype-specific real-time PCR could easil...

Food safety and quality control programmes are increasingly applied throughout the production food chain in order to guarantee added value products as well as to minimize the risk of infection for the consumer. The development of real-time PCR has represented one of the most significant advances in food diagnostics as it provides rapid, reliable and quantitative results. These aspects become in...

Five fluorogenic probe hydrolysis (TaqMan) reverse transcriptase PCR (RT-PCR) assays were developed for serotypes 1 to 4 and group-specific detection of dengue virus. Serotype- and group-specific oligonucleotide primers and fluorogenic probes were designed against conserved regions of the dengue virus genome. The RT-PCR assay is a rapid single-tube method consisting of a 30-min RT step linked t...

Real-time PCR is the method of choice in many laboratories for diagnostic and food applications. This technology merges the polymerase chain reaction chemistry with the use of fluorescent reporter molecules in order to monitor the production of amplification products during each cycle of the PCR reaction. Thus, the combination of excellent sensitivity and specificity, reproducible data, low con...

Food safety and quality control programmes are increasingly applied throughout the production food chain in order to guarantee added value products as well as to minimize the risk of infection for the consumer. The development of real-time PCR has represented one of the most significant advances in food diagnostics as it provides rapid, reliable and quantitative results. These aspects become in...

Recent events illustrate the imperative to rapidly and accurately detect and identify pathogens during disease outbreaks, whether they are natural or engineered. Particularly for our primary goal of detecting bioterrorist releases, detection techniques must be both species-wide (capable of detecting all known strains of a given species) and species specific. Due to classification restrictions o...

To date real-time quantitative PCR and gene expression microarrays are the methods of choice for quantification of nucleic acids. Herein, we described a unique fluorescence resonance energy transferbased microarray platform for real-time quantification of nucleic acid targets that combines advantages of both and reduces their limitations. A set of 30 amino-modified TaqMan probes were designed a...

AIM To develop and evaluate a TaqMan(TM) polymerase chain reaction (PCR) for the rapid identification and speciation of candida species. METHODS Species specific primer and probe sets were designed for the identification of Candida albicans, C. parapsilosis, C. tropicalis, C. krusei, C. kefyr, and C. glabrata from clinical isolates in a 5' exonuclease (TaqMan(TM)) assay. The probes were label...

PCR primers and hybridization probes were designed for the 16S rRNA genes of six bacterial species or groups typically present in human faeces or used in the dairy industry. The primers and probes were applied for quantification of the target bacterial genomes added in artificial DNA mixtures or faecal DNA preparations, using dot-blot hybridization and real-time PCR with SYBR Green I and TaqMan...