Fig. 1.

Cost evaluation. Costs in Swiss francs are shown as a function of the number of samples processed in parallel in a 96-well PCR plate with either a single reaction performed with buffer B per sample (PCR costs, line 1) or two reactions performed with buffer A and with buffer B per sample (PCR costs, line 2). Following gel electrophoresis, positive or doubtful samples were processed by RBH by sets of 40 hybridizations (RBH costs). The costs of RBH per sample are shown as a function of membrane reuse and the number of PCRs subjected to RBH: either one reaction per sample (1) or both reactions, in adjacent lanes, per sample (2). The membranes could be used a median of 11 times, with several being used more than 20 times (see File S2 in the supplemental material).