Molecular Diagnostic Platforms for Specific Detection of Escherichia coli

Abstract

Developing countries due to socio-economic conditions are more prone to frequent pathogenic outbreaks; inadequate sanitation and water quality monitoring are also responsible for such conditions. Therefore, it is of paramount importance to provide microbiologically safe food/water in order to protect public health. Several flaws in traditional culturing methods have sparked a surge in interest in molecular techniques as a means of improving the efficiency and sensitivity of microbiological food/water quality monitoring. Molecular identification of water contaminants, mainly Escherichia coli, has been extensively used. Several of the molecular-based techniques are based on amplification and detection of nucleic acids. The advantages offered by these PCR-based methods over culture-based techniques are a higher level of specificity, sensitivity, and rapidity. Of late, the development of a biosensor device that is easy to perform, highly sensitive, and selective has the potential to become indispensable in detecting low CFU of pathogenic E. coli in environmental samples. This review seeks to provide a vista of the progress made in the detection of E. coli using nucleic acid-based approaches as part of the microbiological food/water quality monitoring.