A MIMIC AS INTERNAL STANDARD TO MONITOR PCR ANALYSIS OF FOODBORNE PATHOGENS

This report describes a method for the construction of a mimic molecul e for monitoring PCR. A blue cheese homogenate spiked with Yersinia en terocolitica was used to demonstrate how false-negative PCR results ma y be avoided using the mimic. Further, the possibility of estimating b acterial numbers using the mimic was illustrated by varying the target concentration.