Mycoplasma Contamination in Cell Culture
Contamination with mycoplasma is amongst the most notorious issues associated with cell cultivation. Depending on cell type, source and culture methods, the contamination with mycoplasma, acholeplasma and ureaplasma varies between 15 and 80%1. A contamination is not only inconvenient, but also a costly issue as it often requires the elimination of precious cultures.
Furthermore, the clinical use of cultured cells makes testing for mollicutes a necessity, especially for pathogens like M. pneumoniae, M. genitalium and M. hominis. PhoenixDx® offers a fast, sensitive and highly specific detection system for more than 130 mollicute species to provide certainty when certainty is needed.
qPCR for fast, sensitive and specific detection of mollicutes
Especially when working with virus samples in the cell culture, qPCR is superior to conventional detection methods as high concentrations of enveloped viruses can bias colorimetric methods like ATP conversion2.
With PhoenixDx® Mycoplasma Mix, the 16s rDNA of more than 130 mollicute species is targeted covering Mycoplasma, Acholeplasma and even Ureaplasma, whereas genomic, eukaryotic DNA (e.g. from the cell culture) is not amplified.
To exclude false-negatives due to PCR inhibition, an additional PCR positive control is included in the mastermix. PhoenixDx® Mycoplasma Mix is not only highly specific, but also easy and fast to use due to its convenient 2X mastermix formulation.