How do these numbers compare to typical culture based methods (i.e. plate counts, MPNs, etc)?
- Date added:
- Thursday, 05 February 2009
Answer
Results obtained from either CENSUS or CENSUS-Express provide a direct assessement on the abudance of a specific microbe or microbial group and are not subject to the limitations associated with more traditional based approaches.
Limitations of traditional culture based approaches are:
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not very representative of in-situ community.
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highly selective based upon conditions used to grow the bacteria (media, temp, etc.)
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it is well documented that less than 10% of bacteria can be cultured.
