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Updated: Oct 13, 2025
Laboratory Techniques Used to Maintain and Differentiate Biotypes of Vibrio cholerae Clinical and Environmental Isolates
Published on: May 30, 2017
Loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) assay for rapid detection of viable but non-culturable Vibrio cholerae
Parastoo Chamanrokh1, Rita R Colwell1,2,3,4, Anwar Huq1,2
1Maryland Pathogen Research Institute, University of Maryland, College Park, MD, USA.
Abstract:
Vibrio cholerae, an important waterborne pathogen, is a rod-shaped bacterium that naturally exists in aquatic environments. When conditions are unfavorable for growth, the bacterium can undergo morphological and physiological changes to assume a coccoid morphology. This stage in its life cycle is referred to as viable but non-culturable (VBNC) because VBNC cells do not grow on conventional bacteriological culture media. The current study compared polymerase chain reaction (PCR) and loop-mediated isothermal amplification (LAMP) to detect and identify VBNC V. cholerae. Because it is difficult to detect and identify VBNC V. cholerae, the results of the current study are useful in showing that LAMP is more sensitive and rapid than PCR in detecting and identifying non-culturable, coccoid forms of V. cholerae. Furthermore, the LAMP method is effective in detecting and identifying very low numbers of coccoid VBNC V. cholerae in environmental water samples, with the added benefit of being inexpensive to perform.
