Digital Quantification of DNA Replication and Chromosome Segregation Enables Determination of Antimicrobial Susceptibility after only 15 Minutes of Antibiotic Exposure.

ABSTRACT: Rapid antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) would decrease misuse and overuse of antibiotics. The "holy grail" of AST is a phenotype-based test that can be performed within a doctor visit. Such a test requires the ability to determine a pathogen's susceptibility after only a short antibiotic exposure. Herein, digital PCR (dPCR) was employed to test whether measuring DNA replication of the target pathogen through digital single-molecule counting would shorten the required time of antibiotic exposure. Partitioning bacterial chromosomal DNA into many small volumes during dPCR enabled AST results after short exposure times by 1) precise quantification and 2) a measurement of how antibiotics affect the states of macromolecular assembly of bacterial chromosomes. This digital AST (dAST) dete

SUBMITTER: Schoepp NG 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC5215780 | biostudies-literature | 2016 Aug

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature