Abstract
The most probable number (MPN) method is a culture-based method commonly used in the field of environmental microbiology to examine microbial populations in liquid substrates. The MPN tests require a wide range of special laboratory equipment, a lot of laboratory space, and skilled staff, which together limit their applicability. This paper presents a modified MPN method, which reduces the experimental requirements by applying tissue plate as a carrier. The modified MPN method introduces a fast-filled tissue plate with 5 × 5 squares as agar carrier, instead of the commonly used set of glass tubes. Further, self-refilling automatic syringe Socorex® was implemented to apply samples to the plate. The response of the modified MPN method was tested on eight selected bacterial strains as well as on soil and water samples. Simultaneously, all the strains and samples were tested by standard spread plate method. High linear correlation between the two methods was found, which makes a new modified MPN method a useful alternative within the field of environmental microbiology.
Highlights
Microbial characteristics are generally considered complex indicators of soil and water health because of clear relationships between microbiome, soil/water characteristics, plant quality, and environment sustainability [1]
The first part of the results measured in this work is presented in Figure 1, where correlation between the counts of microbial strains obtained by most probable number (MPN) drop agar method and spread plate method for eight selected strains is shown
Pseudomonas is among the dominant culturable bacteria in soil [17]
Summary
Microbial characteristics are generally considered complex indicators of soil and water health because of clear relationships between microbiome, soil/water characteristics, plant quality, and environment sustainability [1]. Microorganisms contribute to the transformation and degradation of waste materials and synthetic organic compounds. They influence the physical properties of soil. Most of the research effort applied in the field of environmental microbiology is directed at culture-independent principles, such as molecular methods, dehydrogenase activity, and respiration activity [5]. These culture-independent techniques often do not allow detailed investigations that are possible with cultures. It is difficult to detect and identify novel organisms, obtain phenotypic and functional information, and determine the functions of unknown genes [6]
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