The detection of Mycobacterium tuberculosis in uncultured clinical specimens using the polymerase chain reaction and a non-radioactive DNA probe

Abstract A Sal I- Hin dIII restriction fragment from Mycobacterium tuberculosis was found to hybridize specifically with genomic DNA from M. tuberculosis . Primers were designed from the sequence of this fragment and used to amplify uniquely M. tuberculosis -group DNA in a polymerase chain reaction. It is suggested that a combination of these primers and an acetylaminofluorene-labelled probe will prove to be a useful tool for the early diagnosis of tuberculous infections.