Evaluation of nucleic acid sequence based amplification using fluorescence resonance energy transfer (FRET-NASBA) in quantitative detection of Aspergillus 18S rRNA

We attempted to apply fluorescence resonance energy transfer technology to nucleic acid sequence-based amplification (FRET-NASBA) on the platform of the LightCycler system to detect Aspergillus species. Primers and probes for the Aspergillus 18S rRNA were newly designed to avoid overlapping with homologous sequences of human 18s rRNA. NASBA using molecular beacon (MB) showed non-specific results which have been frequently observed from controls, although it showed higher sensitivity (10