Evaluation of Molecular-Beacon, TaqMan, and Fluorescence Resonance Energy Transfer Probes for Detection of Antibiotic Resistance-Conferring Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Mixed Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA Extracts

Abstract
The ability of fluorescence resonance energy transfer, molecular-beacon, and TaqMan probes to detect single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) in the presence of a wild-type allele was evaluated using drug resistance-conferring SNPs in mixed Mycobacterium tuberculosis DNA. It was found that both the absolute quantity and the ratio of alleles determine the detection sensitivity of the probe systems.