Bacteriology & Antibiotics

Bacterial Identification Method

Accurate and definitive bacterial identification is essential for correct disease diagnosis, treatment of infection and trace-back of disease outbreaks associated with microbial infections. Bacterial identification is used in a wide variety of applications including microbial forensics, criminal investigations, bio-terrorism threats and environmental studies. Traditional methods of bacterial identification rely on phenotypic identification of the causative organism using gram staining, culture and biochemical methods. For identification of bacteria tests can be done  like citrate utilization test, methyl red test, indole production test. In the past decade or so, molecular techniques have proven beneficial in overcoming some limitations of traditional phenotypic procedures for the detection and characterization of bacterial phenotypes. Several non-culture based methods have emerged in the past 15 years. Real time PCR and microarrays are currently the most commonly employed molecular techniques.