We present an assay that is capable of identifying bacteria directly from uncultured clinical urine samples, as well as in mixtures, with the potential to be discriminative even at the subspecies level.
The diagnosis of bacterial infections can often be time-consuming and depend on the cultivation of the bacterial pathogen(s). Here, we present a stand-alone, enzyme-free, optical DNA mapping assay capable of species identification by matching the intensity profiles of large DNA molecules to a database of bacterial genomes. We demonstrate that the assay is capable of identifying bacteria directly from uncultured clinical urine samples, as well as in mixtures of Gram-positive and negative bacteria, with the potential to be discriminative even at the subspecies level.
Link to article: https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acsinfecdis.9b00464