Optical mapping of single DNA molecules in nanochannels: A novel method for identification and characterization of antibiotic resistance

The use, and overuse, of antibiotics has during the last decade led to a dramatic increase in antibiotic resistance and there is a crying need for novel methods for fast identification of antibiotic resistance genes. We here demonstrate how our previously developed assay for optical mapping of DNA in nanochannels can be used for characterization of resistance genes located on plasmid DNA from bacteria. The assay requires extremely small sample volumes and does neither rely on PCR, nor culturing of bacteria, which greatly reduces the time for analysis.