A comparison of plating and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction followed by microchip electrophoresis for the inactivation of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris using saponin

It was used reverse-transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) followed by capillary electrophoresis on a microchip to probe the viability of Alicyclobacillus acidoterrestris spores after inactivation with saponin and heat. The method was shown to be suitable for the purpose, and was faster and more sensitive than the traditional plating technique, the standard of the food industry. The limits of quantification and detection were 0.0107 and 0.0039 ng mu L-1 of amplified DNA, respectively. The correlation coefficient (r) between traditional plating and our method was 0.9977, which indicates an excellent correspondence between them. Consequently, it was possible to assess, with confidence, the viability of bacteria using the RT-PCR reaction for detection. It was evaluated the potential of this molecular method over traditional microbiology in the inactivation of A. acidoterrestris by saponin as an effective agent, potentiated by heat.