**1. Introduction**

#### **1.1. Nucleic acid isolation and downstream applications**

The specific properties of nucleic acids have been widely employed in the development of different molecular methods and mathematical models for their analysis. These methods are applied to identify microorganisms and genetic predispositions, to detect different mutations and determine their role in antibiotic resistance, to study phylogenetic relationships, and so on. What all these methods share in common is their starting point: obtaining a purified nucleic acid sample.

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