A robust method for nucleic acid extraction from fabrics to study bacterial diversity

Abstract

The importance of studying microbial load on fabrics has been recently realized with reports on fabrics being a source of spread of infection in medical and hospitality sectors. However, methodological limitations have restricted the analysis of microbial diversity on fabrics. Hence, the study aimed to develop a robust method for extraction of DNA from different types of fabrics. Bacterial community profiles could be successfully generated with DNA extracted from real life samples, together with identification of different bacterial genera on fabrics. The study opens up venues to study effect of environmental factors on microbial load on fabrics. Also, such a technique will aid correlation between microbial load and types of fabric so as to come up with recommendation for fabrics bearing minimal microbial load for medical and hospitality sectors.