Interpreting the results of the conventional plate culture and gene detection methods for legionella detection in environmental water samples

Abstract

The conventional plate culture method is widely used as a method for detection of Legionella in environmental water samples, but to obtain results takes more than a week. Because it is much quicker, the gene detection method has become widespread as an alternative detection method. However, the results of gene detection and plate culture methods may differ even when the same sample is examined; the gene detection method shows a higher detection ratio than the plate culture method. The reason for this difference is that the plate culture method detects Legionella cells that have the ability to form colonies on an agar plate, whereas the gene detection method detects any Legionella genes present regardless of the state of the Legionella. In this paper, we consider the factors that cause differences between the results of the plate culture and gene detection methods, and how to interpret the results of each.