Estimated copy number of Bacillus anthracis plasmids pXO1 and pXO2 using digital PCR

Abstract We evaluated digital PCR (dPCR) to directly enumerate plasmid and chromosome copies in three strains of Bacillus anthracis . Copy number estimates based on conventional quantitative PCR (qPCR) highlighted the variability of using qPCR to measure copy number whereas estimates based on direct sequencing are comparable to dPCR.