Methods of mycobacterial DNA isolation from different biological material: a review

Mycobacteria cause serious infections in animals and human beings. Huge economic losses on farms are caused by selected species of this wide family. A high risk of transmission of infection from animal to human exists. The knowledge of exact pathogen characteristics is an important factor which can improve quick and adequate healing. Cultivation and determination of phenotype is still the "gold standard", but has the disadvantage of taking a long time and also low detection limit. Biochemical characterisation of isolates is not exact, and it is expensive. A more popular method used is the amplification of specific loci by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). For this method, the isolation of sufficient amounts of purified DNA is necessary. In this paper the most frequently used method for DNA isolation from live mycobacterial cells, body fluids, tissues, histological samples and forensic materials are outlined. This paper assists only as guide for these methods, so we describe them briefly.