2 ml optical tubes using a Bio-Rad CFX96 Touch Real-time PCR system (Bio-Rad Life Science Research, CA). Amplification was performed in 25 μl reaction mixtures selleck inhibitor containing AmpliTaq Gold PCR reaction buffer (Life Technologies, NY) supplemented with 3 mM MgCl2, 500 ng/μl of bovine serum albumin, 250 μM of each deoxynucleoside triphosphate (dNTP), 500 nM of each set of primers, 5 units of AmpliTaq Gold polymerase (Life

Technologies, NY), and 100 nM each of RecA3 and ACTA1 molecular beacon probe. Specificity of each primer set and molecular beacon probe was first checked in monoplex assays using the specific primers/probe in the PCR. The primer/probe sets of other pathogen(s) were included as negative controls in these assay (data not shown). For each amplification reaction, 5 μl of the DNA template was used to minimize the variation due to pipetting error. The amplification program consisted of initial heating at 95°C for 5 minutes, followed by 50 cycles of heating at 95°C for 15 s, annealing and fluorescence detection at 60°C for 30 s, and polymerization at 72°C for 20 s. Similarly, amplification of a 141 bp amplicon from BmTPK gene using 5BmTPK and 3BmTPK Staurosporine in vivo primers and a 152 bp selleck kinase inhibitor amplicon of APH1387 gene using 5Aphagocyt and 3Aphagocyt primers were carried out in the presence of human

genomic DNA. Molecular beacon probes, BmTPK and APH1387 were used for detection of the respective amplicons. All primer and probe sequences are listed in Table 1. Data were processed using the software provided by the manufacturer. Quadruplex real-time PCR assays Quadruplex real-time PCR assay was performed in conditions described above. Genomic DNA of B. enough burgdorferi and human, and clones of BmTPK and APH1387 were used as templates, and 500 nM each of RecF and RecR primers and 5BmTPK and 3BmTPK primers, 250 nM each of 5Aphagocyt and 3Aphagocyt primers, 100 nM each of 5ACTA1 and 3ACTA1 primers, 100 nM each of RecA3, BmTPK, APH1387, and ACTA1 molecular beacons were included in each reaction. For confirmation of the quadruplex assay in which plasmids containing BmTPK and

APH1387 were used, we incorporated different concentrations of genomic DNA of B. burgdorferi, B. microti and A. phagocytophilum in the triplex real-time PCR. Human DNA control was not included in these assays. Genome sizes of B. microti and A. phagocytophilum are 6.5 Mb and 1.47 Mb, respectively. Therefore, 106 copies of BmTPK and APH1387 are calculated to be present in 8 ng and 2 ng of genomic DNA, respectively. By using different relative genomic copy numbers and the conditions described above for quadruplex assay, consistent results validated our assay for simultaneous detection of all three pathogens. Borrelia speciation by real-time PCR assays To differentiate three major species that cause Lyme disease in Europe, B. burgdorferi, B. afzelii and B.