Rapid methods for counting mycobacteria--comparison of methods for extraction of mycobacterial adenosine triphosphate (ATP) determined by firefly luciferase assay.

A comparison of 5 different methods of extraction of adenosine 5'-triphosphate (ATP) from mycobacterial cells was carried out using Mycobacterium bovis, BCG as a model. ATP was measured using the luciferin-luciferase bioluminescence reaction. Boiling buffer extraction was the best method. The amount of ATP extracted correlated with the number of colony forming units over a wide range of count. Although great sensitivity in terms of number of bacilli detectable was not achieved the method was rapid and appears suitable for drug sensitivity testing of tubercle bacilli.