Molecular assay validation using genomic sequence databases

Abstract

Whole-genome sequence databases offer new in silico approaches for designing and validating PCR assays in the clinical microbiology laboratory. An article in this issue of the Journal of Clinical Microbiology (M. J. Jansen van Rensburg, C. Swift, A. J. Cody, C. Jenkins, and M. C. J. Maiden, J Clin Microbiol, 54:2882-2890, 2016, http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/JCM.01522-16) demonstrates the use of publicly available genomic sequence data to evaluate a PCR assay for distinguishing Campylobacter species.