The use of arbitrarily primed PCR (AP-PCR) to develop taxa specific DNA probes of known sequence

Abstract A rapid polymerase chain reaction (PCR) method to obtain taxa-specific DNA probes has been developed. The oligonucleotide probes derived from the sequences of species-specific (or other taxa) random amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) fragments. The methodology was applied to design probes for the halophilic archael species Haloferax mediterranei . With this technique, DNA probes of known sequence can be generated easily and without any previous knowledge about the properties of the microorganisms.