Patent ID: 8758990

Claim:
A method for detecting Mycobacterium sp., comprising: a) providing a sample suspected of comprising Mycobacterium cells; b) making a suspension of the cells in said sample; c) permeabilizing but not lysing the cells in the cell suspension by contacting them with a composition comprising: Tris HCI at 10 to 100 mM, pH 7.0 to 9.0, EDTA at about 3 mM, IGEPAL at 0.1 to 2.0 percent v/v, acetic acid at 1.0 to 20 percent v/v, methanol at 1 to 50 percent v/v, sodium cholate at 0.01 to 1.25 percent v/v, sodium deoxycholate at 0.01 to 1.25 percent v/v and one of GuSCN (guanidine thiocyanate) at about 4.3 M or GuHCI (guanidine hydrochloride) at 2 to 6 M; d) contacting the permeabilized cells with a probe specific for Mycobacterium DNA or RNA to create bound probes; and e) detecting any bound probes inside the Mycobacterium cells.