title: An alternative PCR assay for quantifying mitochondrial DNA in crude preparations.
abstract: A method is described for the quantification of mitochondrial DNA present in crude biological preparations. A known copy number of a standard is amplified in the presence of inactivated target DNA so as to determine the overall efficiency of the PCR process in a particular sample. In this way any inhibitory and/or stimulatory substances present in sample preparations can be taken into account. To reduce tube-to-tube variations product DNA quantification is limited to small cycle numbers. Using this method quantitations of DNA amounts in different crude preparations can be compared.
authors.affiliation: Department of Biochemistry and Microbiology, University of Port Elizabeth, PO Box 1600, Port Elizabeth 6000, South Africa.
authors.forename: T C
authors.initials: TC
authors.lastname: Koekemoer
authors.forename: T G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Downing
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Oelofsen
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial / Q000032:analysis*; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D013552:Swine
chemical_list: D004272:DNA, Mitochondrial