Digital PCR in microbial detection and analysis

Detection of low-abundance targets – partitioning in dPCR increases the effective signal-to-noise ratio, and with the nanoplate 26K, a large reaction volume can be analyzed, increasing the chances of finding rare targets – this is particularly beneficial for detecting low microbial loads, quantifying rare organisms in mixed communities or detecting microbial DNA in samples with limited biomass

High multiplexing capacity – with nanoplate dPCR, you can analyze up to 12 targets in one reaction, enabling experiments for:

• Simultaneous quantification of a microorganism and a host or process-control gene
• Measuring several microbial species or strains
• Quantifying target organisms alongside total bacterial or fungal loads
• Detecting functional genes, such as nitrogen-cycle, carbon-cycle or resistance-associated markers
• Normalizing microbial targets
• Distinguishing closely related organisms using sequence-specific probes

Get started with your multiplex dPCR assay design with the help of our multiplex checker tool.

Lower susceptibility to inhibitors – dPCR quantification is based on endpoint PCR, making it less sensitive to PCR inhibitor effects than qPCR; this is advantageous for microbiological samples rich in PCR inhibitors such as humic substances in soil and water, polysaccharides and polyphenols in plant samples, lipids and proteins in food matrices and inhibitory compounds from cell culture or extraction reagents.