The Use of DNA Methods to Characterize Biofilm Infection - Antibiofilm Agents: From Diagnosis to Treatment and Prevention - page 13

The Use of DNA Methods to Characterize
Biofilm Infection
Randall Wolcott and Stephen B. Cox
Abstract Because of biofilm's fundamental properties—its polymicrobial nature
(genetic diversity) and “viable but not culturable” microbial constituents—clinical
cultures are wholly unsuited for evaluating chronic infections associated with
biofilm. DNA-based technologies (molecular methods) have a number of advan-
tages for evaluating human infections. Real-time PCR and sequencing technologies
are particularly robust for identifying microorganisms in human environments
because of development of their methods by the human microbiome project.
DNA methods enjoy much higher sensitivity and specificity than cultivation
methods for identifying microorganisms regardless of their phenotype. Moreover,
real-time PCR can be quantitative in an absolute sense, while sequencing methods
yield accurate relative quantification of all constituents of the sampled infection.
All methods for microbial identification have biases, yet molecular methods suffer
the least from these biases. Although DNA-based identification of microorganisms
has the limitation that sensitivities to antibiotics cannot be determined in a Petri
dish and must be determined by identifying mobile genetic resistance elements
within the microbes, molecular methods are a significant improvement in the
identification of microorganisms for human infections and are currently the only
reliable technology for diagnosing biofilm infection.
1 DNA-Based Testing
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king—Erasmus .