IDENTIFICATION AND INSITU DETECTION OF INDIVIDUAL BACTERIAL-CELLS

Microbial ecology has long been hampered by the fact that most microorganisms cannot be identified in situ because of the lack of morphological diversity. The immunofluorescence approach has yielded important insights into the spatial distribution of microorganisms but has its severe limitations. The recently introduced fluorescently labelled, ribosomal RNA-targeted oligonucleotide probes have successfully been applied for the detection and identification in situ of individual microbial cells and evade some of the principal problems of fluorescent antibodies. The design and synthesis of these phylogenetically nested probes does not require cultivation and isolation of the target organism and can therefore be used to monitor the population distribution and dynamics of hitherto uncultured microorganisms.