propidium-monoazide and sarkosyl

Pathogenic microorganisms are responsible for many infectious diseases, and pathogen monitoring is important and necessary for water quality control. This study for the first time explored a multiplex quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) technique combined with propidium monoazide (PMA) to simultaneously detect viable Legionella pneumophila, Salmonella typhimurium, and Staphylococcus aureus in one reaction from water samples. Sodium lauroyl sarcosinate (sarkosyl) was applied to enhance the dead bacterial permeability of PMA. The sensitivity of the multiplex PMA-qPCR assay achieved two colony-forming units (CFU) per reaction for L. pneumophila and three CFU per reaction for S. typhimurium and S. aureus. No PCR products were amplified from all nontarget control samples. Significantly, with comparable specificity and sensitivity, this newly invented multiplex PMA-qPCR assay took a much shorter time than did conventional culture assays when testing water samples with spiked bacteria and simulated environmental water treatment. The viable multiplex PMA-qPCR assay was further successfully applied to pathogen detection from rivers, canals, and tap water samples after simple water pretreatment.

Topics: Azides; Cross-Linking Reagents; Legionella pneumophila; Microbial Viability; Propidium; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Reference Standards; Reproducibility of Results; Salmonella typhimurium; Sarcosine; Staphylococcus aureus; Water; Water Microbiology

The cell membranes of inactivated Escherichia coli are not always permeable to propidium monoazide (PMA). This limits the use of PMA real-time PCR (PMA-qPCR) for quantification of DNA from only viable cells for enumeration of E. coli. The aim of this study was to develop PMA-qPCR procedures for E. coli with improved selectivity for viable cells. E. coli inactivated by incubation at 52°C were treated with 12 detergents before PMA treatment, and DNA was quantified by real-time PCR. Treatment with each of the 12 detergents and PMA increased the cycle threshold (Ct) values for heat inactivated E. coli suspensions. The greatest increase, of 10.68 Ct was obtained with sarkosyl. Treatment with sodium deoxycholate (NaDC) increased the Ct value by 8.99 Ct. Treatment with sarkosyl or NaDC of 16 heat treated 5-strain cocktails of verotoxigenic E. coli (VTEC) increased the mean Ct values by 8.15 or 6.82 Ct, respectively. Those mean values were significantly (p<0.05) different. When used to enumerate viable E. coli in suspensions treated with lactic acid or in mixtures of viable E. coli and E. coli inactivated by peroxyacetic acid, the slopes relating the Ct values from sarkosyl treated samples to the numbers of viable E. coli were 2.24 and 2.47, respectively, with regression coefficient values ≥0.85. The findings show that sarkosyl was more effective than NaDC for dissipation of PMA-barrier properties of membranes of inactivated E. coli cells. Viable E. coli in mixtures of viable E. coli and E. coli inactivated by heat, lactic acid or peroxyacetic acid could be reliably enumerated by sarkosyl PMA-qPCR.

Topics: Azides; Deoxycholic Acid; DNA, Bacterial; Escherichia coli; Lactic Acid; Peracetic Acid; Propidium; Real-Time Polymerase Chain Reaction; Sarcosine