Speciation of mycobacteria by pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of chromosomal DNA fragments

摘要

Various strains and species of mycobacteria can be characterized using an improved technique involving digestion of the bacterial chromosome to obtain relatively large DNA fragments and separating the resulting fragments using pulsed-field gel electrophoresis techniques. The resulting patterns are characteristic of particular mycobacteria. The chromosomal DNA is conveniently obtained in situ in a gel plug by embedding cells into the plug and extracting non-DNA cellular components. The plug can then be used directly in the size separation.