BACKGROUND HIV diversity may be a useful biomarker for discriminating between recent and non-recent HIV infection. The high resolution melting (HRM) diversity assay was developed to quantify HIV diversity in viral populations without sequencing. In this assay, HIV diversity is expressed as a single numeric HRM score that represents the width of a melting peak. HRM scores are highly associated w...

Several real-time PCR procedures for the detection and genotyping of oocysts of Cryptosporidium parvum were evaluated. A 40-cycle amplification of a 157-bp fragment from the C. parvum beta-tubulin gene detected individual oocysts which were introduced into the reaction mixture by micromanipulation. SYBR Green I melting curve analysis was used to confirm the specificity of the method when DNA ex...

Ehrlichia canis is a small pleomorphic gram-negative, coccoid, obligatory intracellular bacterium and the cause of canine monocytic ehrlichiosis. A real-time fluorescence resonance energy transfer polymerase chain reaction (real-time FRET PCR) coupled with melting curve analysis was established for detection of E. canis infection in canine blood samples. The VirB9 gene was amplified using one p...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Invasive candidiasis is a major fungal infection occurring in patients who have prolonged hospital admissions. The rapid detection and confirmation of Candida spp. in clinical specimens is essential for efficient management and improved prognosis of these patients. The purpose of this study was to develop a real-time LightCycler polymerase chain reaction (PCR) assay for t...

High-pressure melting anchors the phase diagram of a material, revealing the effect of pressure on the breakdown of the ordering of atoms in the solid. An important case is molybdenum, which has long been speculated to undergo an exceptionally steep increase in melting temperature when compressed. On the other hand, previous experiments showed nearly constant melting temperature as a function o...

OBJECTIVES The fibroblast growth factor receptor 3 gene (FGFR3) plays a critical role in cartilage growth-plate differentiation and bony development. It has been shown that 97% of patients with achondroplasia have a G to A transition mutation at position 1138 (c.1138 G>A) of codon 380 of the FGFR3 gene. DESIGN AND METHODS Exon 8 of the FGFR3 gene was analyzed in 40 patients with achondroplasi...

background: candida albicans (c. albicans) is a major cause of candidaemia in people with impaired immunity. blood culture is a “gold standard” for candidaemia detection but is time-consuming and relatively insensitive. we established a real-time pcr assay for c. albicans detection in blood by lightcycler pcr and melting curve analysis. methods: five milliliter blood samples from healthy volunt...

CONTEXT Real-time polymerase chain reaction technologies have replaced many of the more labor-intense methods in the molecular diagnostics laboratory. Similarly, melt curve analysis can provide a rapid means of mutation screening. OBJECTIVE To determine if real-time polymerase chain reaction and melt curve analysis using the SmartCycler II could be used as a screening tool for 3 common mutati...