Question

Describe briefly how you would detect the presence of a non culturable prokaryote in an environmental sample.

Short answer

The most common procedure, which is used to find the existence of non-culturable organisms is polymerase chain reaction (PCR).

Step-by-step solution

Introduction

It is very easy to determine the functional diversity in cultural microbes in comparison to non-cultural or culture-independent microbes. A lot of advances have been made recently to determine non-cultural bacteria, which comprise molecular biology tools.

Explanation

The most common procedure, which is used to find the existence of non-culturable organisms ispolymerase chain reaction (PCR). It is a method of amplification of small concentrations of DNA resulting in the formation of several copies.

Determination through PCR needs primers, which are highly specific for the replicons, which they were created against so that false positive are not witnessed. There is also sequence-dependent replicons selection. Therefore, the PCR product signifies all the microbial genes found in the sample of the organism.