Parallel analysis of antimicrobial activities in microbial community by SSCP based on CE

Conventional antimicrobial activity analyses such as the broth dilution method and disk diffusion test are considerably demanding processes for new antimicrobial agent discovery and sensitive diagnosis of infectious diseases. Here, we developed a new antimicrobial activity analysis system using CE-based SSCP (CE-SSCP) combined with 16S rRNA gene-specific PCR (PCR/CE-SSCP). Using this method, the population change in the microbial community in response to specific antimicrobial agents could be quantified with a high sensitivity and accuracy from a small sample amount. Using a mixture of microorganisms comprising Escherichia coli, Corynebacterium glutamicum, Acinetobacter calcoaceticus, and Staphylococcus aureus as a model system, the linear correlation between the genomic DNA concentrations and peak areas in 16S rRNA gene-specific PCR/CE-SSCP was determined; consequently, quantification of cell concentrations could be demonstrated using this method. Compared to the minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) values from the conventional broth dilution method, this new system provided almost the same MIC values for popular antimicrobial agents such as kanamycin, spectinomycin, and streptomycin. The results demonstrated that the newly developed method can be a substitute for the conventional antimicrobial analysis method and highlighted its high potential in the areas of new antimicrobial agent discovery and clinical diagnosis.     

Expression Levels of RFP in Normal and Cancer Human Tissues via Real-time RT-PCR Detection

IntroductionRet finger protein(RFP) was first identified as apart of the human recombined transforming gene, ret,and was a member of the tripartite motif(TRIM) pro-tein family. Itwas postulated thatmultimeric complexesmade of TRIM proteins defined differe…     

Real-time polymerase chain reaction assay for endogenous reference gene for specific detection and quantification of common wheat-derived DNA (Triticum aestivum L.)

A species-specific endogenous reference gene system was developed for polymerase chain reaction (PCR)-based analysis in common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) by targeting the ALMT1 gene, an aluminium-activated malate transporter. The primers and probe were elaborated for real-time PCR-based qualitative and quantitative assay. The size of amplified product is 95 base pairs. The specificity was assessed on 17 monocot and dicot plant species. The established real-time PCR assay amplified only T. aestivum-derived DNA; no amplification occurred on other phylogenetically related species, including durum wheat (T. durum). The robustness of the system was tested on the DNA of 15 common wheat cultivars using 20 000 genomic copies per PCR the mean cycle threshold (Ct) values of 24.02 +/- 0.251 were obtained. The absolute limits of detection and quantification of the real-time PCR assay were estimated to 2 and 20 haploid genome copies of common wheat, respectively. The linearity was experimentally validated on 2-fold serial dilutions of DNA from 650 to 20 000 haploid genome copies. All these results show that the real-time PCR assay developed on the ALMT1 gene is suitable to be used as an endogenous reference gene for PCR-based specific detection and quantification of T. aestivum-derived DNA in various applications, in particular for the detection and quantification of genetically modified materials in common wheat.     

High-throughput single nucleotide polymorphism typing by fluorescent single-strand conformation polymorphism analysis with capillary electrophoresis

In this study, we performed high-throughput and precise single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) typing by fluorescent capillary electrophoresis single-strand conformation polymorphism (CE-SSCP) analysis. A system composed of a multicapillary DNA analyzer, a newly developed sieving matrix, four different colors of fluorescent labels, and a multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR) enabled low-cost and highly reliable SNP typing. Moreover, this system enabled the estimation of SNP allele frequencies using pooled DNA samples, which should be beneficial for large-scale association studies. Thus, fluorescent CE-SSCP analysis is a useful method for large-scale SNP typing.     

Quantitative Detection of Gene Methylated Level of Stool Samples Based on Invader Assay Coupled with Real-time Polymerase Chain Reaction and Its Application in Non-invasive Screening of Colorectal Cancer

Methylation of bone morphogenetic protein 3 (BMP3) in stool DNA is an effective biomarker for non-invasive screening of colorectal cancer. However, a highly sensitive and specific detection method is required. Here, a quantification method for BMP3 methylation was developed by combining real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) with invader assay using Beta-actin (ACTB) as a reference. Amplification efficiencies of BMP3 and ACTB were close to 100% after optimizing the concentration of detection probes, FEN1 enzyme and Taq polymerase, and the relative quantification of BMP3 methylation was achieved accurately by ΔCT algorithms. Ten copies and 0.01% of BMP3 methylation level could be successfully detected and non-specific signal was generated from non-methylated template, indicating that the method was highly sensitive and specific. The method was successfully applied to detect BMP3 methylation in fecal DNA from 16 colorectal cancer patients, 7 adenoma patients and 19 healthy volunteers. The results indicated that BMP3 methylation occurred in 5 of 16 cancer patients and 2 of 7 adenoma patients, but was not observed in 19 of healthy volunteers. Therefore, this method could be used to quantify methylation of gene in stool samples, providing an effective technique for non-invasive screening of colorectal cancer.