Patent ID: 9115407
Filing Date: 2015-08-25
Classification: C12Q,Y02A

Abstract:
1. A method of detecting whether at least one target prokaryotic microorganism in a sample is viable, the method comprising: collecting a sample; nutritionally stimulating and incubating a first aliquot of the sample at one or more temperatures for a time period, thereby producing a nutritionally stimulated first aliquot, wherein the time period is less than the time for the at least one target prokaryotic microorganism to grow for one generation; maintaining and incubating a second aliquot of the sample under non-nutritionally stimulating control conditions at the one or more temperatures for the time period, thereby producing a non-nutritionally stimulated second aliquot, wherein the first aliquot and the second aliquot are equal aliquots; comparing the level of at least one target pre-rRNA from the at least one target prokaryotic microorganism from the nutritionally stimulated first aliquot with the level of the at least one target pre-rRNA from the at least one target prokaryotic microorganism in the non-nutritionally stimulated second aliquot; wherein when the ratio of the level of the at least one target pre-rRNA in the nutritionally stimulated first aliquot to the level of the at least one target pre-rRNA in the non-nutritionally stimulated second aliquot is greater than 1, the at least one target prokaryotic microorganism in the sample is viable, and when the ratio is not greater than 1, no viable target prokaryotic microorganism is detected in the sample.