Aims: To optimize ethidium monoazide (EMA) coupled with real‐time quantitative PCR (qPCR) and to evaluate its environmental applicability on quantifying viable legionellae in water and biofilm of cooling towers and hot water systems. Methods and Results: EMA (0·9–45·5 μg ml−1) and propidium monoazide (PMA, 0·9 and 2·3 μg ml−1) combined with qPCR (i.e. EMA‐qPCR and PMA‐qPCR, respectively) were applied to unheated and heated (70°C for 30 min) Legionella pneumophila to quantify viable cells, which was also simultaneously determined by BacLight Bacterial Viability kit with epifluorogenic microscopic enumeration (BacLight‐EM). The effects of nontarget microflora and sample matrix on the performance of EMA‐qPCR were also evaluated. In comparison with BacLight‐EM results, qPCR with EMA at 2·3 μg ml−1 was determined as the optimal EMA‐qPCR assay, which performed equally well as PMA‐qPCR for unheated Leg. pneumophila but better than PMA‐qPCR for heated Leg. pneumophila (P < 0·05). Moreover, qPCR with EMA at 2·3 μg ml−1 accurately quantified viable Leg. pneumophila, Legionella anisa and Legionella‐like amoebal pathogens 6 (LLAP 6) without interferences by heated legionellae, unheated nonlegionellae cells and cooling tower water matrix (P > 0·05). As for water and biofilm samples collected from cooling towers and hot water systems, the viable legionellae counts determined by EMA‐qPCR were mostly greater than the culturable counts by culture assay but consistently lower than the total cell counts quantified by qPCR. Conclusions: The qPCR with EMA at 2·3 μg ml−1 may accurately quantify viable legionellae (including fastidious LLAP 6) and Leg. pneumophila pretreated with superheating and is applicable for water and biofilm samples obtained from cooling towers and hot water systems. Significance and Impact of the Study: The EMA‐qPCR assay may be useful in environmental surveillance for viable legionellae and in evaluation of superheating efficacy against legionellae.
Six methods, QiAamp DNA Mini Kit (Q), Q with Sepharose 4B gel column (Q/G), Q with low melting point agarose (Q/L), freeze-thaw/phenol-chloroform lysis (FT-PC), FT-PC/G, and FT-PC/L, were evaluated for their ability to isolate DNA of sufficient quality to quantify Legionella using qPCR. Samples of mixing Legionella pneumophila (ATCC33152) and humic acid (HA, 0-126.8 mg/l) were treated by the six methods. Q, Q/G, Q/L, FT-PC/G, and FT-PC/L removed HA from 1.9-126.8 to <1 mg/l determined by A260 with a spectrophotometer. Q obtained the highest DNA yield, followed by Q/G. Dilution (10- to 100-fold) of DNA arising from extraction using Q, Q/G, FT-PC, or FT-PC/G prevented qPCR inhibition. The highest recovery of cells was found in DNA extracted by Q and diluted 100-fold, and followed by Q/G. The applicability of Q and Q/G with dilution was further validated with cooling tower waters. Q or Q/G with 10-fold dilution increased L. pneumophila detection, whereas 100-fold dilution obtained the highest cell concentrations. Similar results were found for Legionella spp. except that both 10- and 100-fold dilutions increased cell concentrations. Thus, Q with 10-fold dilution is suggested to detect and quantify Legionella spp. and detect L. pneumophila. For L. pneumophila-positive samples, 100-fold diluted DNA must be re-analyzed to accurately quantify L. pneumophila.
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