FIG. 5.

Species-specific signatures for 27 different mycobacteria. Each PCR assay was initiated with genomic DNA from a different mycobacterial species. The normalized derivatives of the fluorescence intensity of the hybrids formed by the binding of the resulting amplicons to the differently colored sloppy molecular beacon probes present in each reaction mixture (dI/dT) are plotted as a function of temperature. The set of three or four T_m values determined in each reaction by melting apart these hybrids serves as a unique signature that identifies the mycobacterial species whose genomic DNA was used to initiate amplification.