Detection of Microbes

PNA oligomers have also found widespread application as probes for in situ hybridization (FISH) both in human diagnostics [119-122] and in environmental detection of microbes [123, 124]. 

Ercolini, D. (2004). PCR-DGGE fingerprinting novel strategies for detection of microbes in food. J. Microbiol. Meth, 56, 297-314. 

Stevenson BS, SA Eichorst, JT Wertz, TM Schmidt, JA Breznak (2004) New strategies for cnltivation and detection of previonsly uncultivated microbes. Appl Environ Microbiol 70 4748-4755. 

Microbes of differing physiologic types, acting in consortia, appear to be more destructive than monocultures. Methods for examining consortia are based on the detection of lipid biomarkers that are characteristic for different classes of microbes. These can be analyzed by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry [512]. 

H. Muramatsu, K. Kajiwara, E. Tamiya, and I. Karube, Piezoelectric immunosensor for the detection of Candida albicans microbes. Anal. Chim. Acta 188, 257—261 (1986). 

The performance of a biotreatment system ultimately depends on optimization of the activity of microbes and the ability to control the process parameters of the treatment system [157]. In this respect, the ability to monitor gene copy numbers and gene expression is highly useful for real time optimization of the efficiency of a biotreatment system. Advanced molecular techniques as well as low cost methods (e.g., antibody detection of enzymes based on color reaction strips fluorescence i.e., GFP marked organisms with UV light detection) can also be applied to monitor the microbial community structure, persistence of the added bacteria, and their interactions with indigenous populations. 

Microbes and metazoans are exposed to a variety of toxic stresses and have evolved appropriate defenses and repair mechanisms. Some of these systems are regulated at the protein level, but others are regulated at the transcriptional level, allowing the development of reporter assays. These transcriptional responses can be used to provide an earlier marker for genotoxin exposure in a whole population of cells, rather than the detection of the endpoints discussed above, in which genotoxic stress leads to fixation of mutations or chromosomal aberrations/damage in a small subpopulation. 

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