An automated system for rapid non-destructive enumeration of growing microbes.

ABSTRACT:

Background

The power and simplicity of visual colony counting have made it the mainstay of microbiological analysis for more than 130 years. A disadvantage of the method is the long time required to generate visible colonies from cells in a sample. New rapid testing technologies generally have failed to maintain one or more of the major advantages of culture-based methods.

Principal findings

We present a new technology and platform that uses digital imaging of cellular autofluorescence to detect and enumerate growing microcolonies many generations before they become visible to the eye. The data presented demonstrate that the method preserves the viability of the microcolonies it detects, thus enabling generation of pure cultures for microbial identification. While visual col

SUBMITTER: London R 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC2798718 | biostudies-literature | 2010 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature