IntroductionAlthough some infections are unique enough to be identified clinically, laboratory microbiological methods are usually required to identify the etiologic agent and diagnose the microbial infection (Washington, JA, 1996 ). Although we have made significant progress in our ability to diagnose and treat infectious diseases, they still remain a strong challenge to human survival, for example tuberculosis, caused by a microbial infection with Mycobacterium tuberculosis, accounted for a third of the world's bacterial infections in 2010. infecting a total of 8.8 million people worldwide (Dheda et al., 2010). Diagnosis is important not only to prescribe effective drugs but to prevent the evolution of resistant microorganisms (Mori and Notomi, 2009). Traditionally, the microbiology laboratory identifies the etiological agents of infectious diseases through direct examination and culture of clinical specimens. Methods to identify and differentiate the microorganisms responsible for microbial infection were mainly based on the microbial morphology, staining properties of the organism, and its growth variables. However, an important limitation is that >99% of microorganisms observed under the microscope are not cultivable with these direct techniques (Rastogi and Sani, 2011). Other disadvantages of these traditional methods include their lack of reproducibility and the difficulties they produce in typing as they are usually not sensitive enough for strain differentiation. These techniques are also limited by the number of organisms present and the microbiologist's ability to recognize different pathogens (Tang et al., 1997). In recent decades, the development and introduction of molecular techniques in the laboratory...... half of the article ......nd Notomi, T. (2009) 'Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) : a rapid, accurate and economical diagnostic method for infectious diseases.", J Infect Chemother, 15(2), pp. 62-69.Muldrew, KL (2009) "Molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases", Curr Opin Pediatr , 21(1), pp. 102-111.Rastogi, G. and Sani, R.K. (2011) "Chapter 2: Molecular techniques for assessing microbial community structure, function and dynamics in the environment", in Ahmad, I., Ahmad, F. and Pichtel, J. (eds.) Microbes and Microbial Technology. California, USA: Springer Science, pp. 29-57. YW, Procop, GW and Persing, DH (1997) "Molecular diagnostics of infectious diseases", Clin Chem, 43(11), pp. 2021-2038.Washington, JA (1996) "Chapter 10: Principles of diagnosis", in Samuel Baron (ed.) Medical Microbiology 4th Edn Galveston, Texas: University of Texas Medical Branch.