title: Residual polymerase activity-induced bias in terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis.
abstract: Residual activity of polymerase chain reaction DNA polymerases in restriction analyses strongly affected genetic profiling based on terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms. Artificial fragment sizes produced as a result of 5'-overhang restriction site fill-in and addition of a terminal A may bias genetic profiling and genotyping of microbial communities. Efficient removal of polymerases retained original fragment sizes and significantly reduced this profiling bias in soil bacterial communities.
authors.affiliation: Molecular Ecology, Agroscope Reckenholz-Tänikon Research Station ART, CH-8046 Zurich, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Martin
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Hartmann
authors.forename: Jürg
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Enkerli
authors.forename: Franco
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Widmer
mesh_terms: D001419:Bacteria / Q000235:genetics*; D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase; D005838:Genotype; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction / Q000379:methods*; D012150:Polymorphism, Restriction Fragment Length; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012988:Soil Microbiology
chemical_list: D004259:DNA-Directed DNA Polymerase