TY - JOUR AU - Nguyen-Hieu, Tung AU - Aboudharam, Gérard AU - Drancourt, Michel PY - 2012 DA - 2012/09/25 TI - Heat degradation of eukaryotic and bacterial DNA: an experimental model for paleomicrobiology JO - BMC Research Notes SP - 528 VL - 5 IS - 1 AB - Theoretical models suggest that DNA degradation would sharply limit the PCR-based detection of both eukaryotic and prokaryotic DNA within ancient specimens. However, the relative extent of decay of eukaryote and prokaryote DNA over time is a matter of debate. In this study, the murine macrophage cell line J774, alone or infected with Mycobacterium smegmatis bacteria, were killed after exposure to 90°C dry heat for intervals ranging from 1 to 48 h in order to compare eukaryotic cells, extracellular bacteria and intracellular bacteria. The sizes of the resulting mycobacterial rpo B and murine rpb 2 homologous gene fragments were then determined by real-time PCR and fluorescent probing. SN - 1756-0500 UR - https://doi.org/10.1186/1756-0500-5-528 DO - 10.1186/1756-0500-5-528 ID - Nguyen-Hieu2012 ER -