Nucleic Acid Probes in Microbiology

Abstract

Single-stranded nucleic acid molecules can interact under certain conditions with other nucleic acids in the regions of base complementarily to form double-stranded hybrid molecules. From measurement of kinetics of the hybridisation and the extent of hybrid formation, information on nucleotide sequence heterogeneity of nucleic acid fractions, sequence properties of purified classes of molecules or the degree of homology between different samples of nucleic acids can be obtained. A specific deoxyribonucleic acid or ribonucleic acid sequence with an identifiable marker can be used as a nucleic acid probe. This paper reviews the use of nucleic acid probes for classifying the microorganisms and their detection in clinical or environmental samples.