Mycoplasma contamination of your cell cultures can seriously impact the reliability, reproducibility, and consistency of your experimental results. It presents a major challenge for research, as well as in the manufacturing of bioproducts.
Mycoplasma contamination is difficult to detect and therefore its presence can go undiscovered for months. In fact, it is estimated that over 10% of all cell cultures are contaminated with Mycoplasma species1. This shows the importance of routine testing to make sure you are working with uncontaminated cultures. Here, we look at the challenges and best approaches for detecting, eliminating, and preventing mycoplasma contamination, including a wide range of common questions and answers on how to overcome the issue.
1) Olarerin-George AO, Hogenesch JB (2015). Nucleic Acids Research 43(5): 2535–2542
