Table 3.

Per-sample cost comparison of ospC identification methods for processing 3,000 samples

Step or item	Cost/sample (U.S. dollars)			Source or details
	Sequencing	RLBa	T-RFLP
PCR
1st round	1.06	1.06	1.06	Qiagen HotStart MasterMix
2nd (nested) round	0.95	0.95	1.28	Bioline Immomix, Applied Biosystems FAM/HEX primers
2nd round (additional primers)			1.21	Bioline Immomix, Applied Biosystems NED primer
Other
Oligonucleotidess to bind (19)		<0.01		Invitrogen
20× SSCb		0.01		Promega
SDS 10%		0.01		Promega
1 M Tris HCl		0.01		Promega
0.5 M EDTA		<0.01		Promega
Maleic acid buffer		0.01		Sigma Aldrich
DIG luminescence detection kit		0.29		Roche
96-well plates	0.08		0.23	USA Scientific
Enzymes, buffers			0.70	New England Biolabs
Size standard			0.23	BioVentures
Formamide			0.02	Applied Biosystems
Run costs
PCR purification, cycle seq	6.00			DNA Analysis Facility at Yale University (external price)
MiniSlot30		0.36		Immunetics
UV cross-linker		0.53		VWR Scientific
X-ray processor		1.13		Konica Minolta
Fragment analysis			0.75	DNA Analysis Facility at Yale University (external price)
Labor	0.42	2.67	0.63
Total cost/sample	8.51	7.02	6.10

^aRLB, reverse line blotting.

^bSSC, 1× SSC is 0.15 M NaCl plus 0.015 M sodium citrate.