Evaluating Library Databases for Microbial Identification: Critical Aspects and Recommendations

The ability of any system to accurately identify bacteria to the species level is based on the coverage and the accuracy of the library entries. The Accugenix library contains substantially more unique library entries than any other test system, containing 4,158 unique, taxonomically distinct species. Specifically, in terms of relevancy, 1,979 unique species were identified by Accugenix, analyzing 262,699 isolates from aseptic and sterile manufacturing environments collected worldwide.

A comparative analysis demonstrates that all other identification systems are just a subset of the Accugenix library, comprising less than 50% of the coverage. Furthermore, differences in coverage of bacterial species relevant to the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries were found to be significant. Such gaps and errors in entries prohibit speciation of many relevant bacteria. The lack of coverage observed is rather forgiving, as it does not take into account assay quality and laboratory operational errors. Moreover, the ability to determine an accurate species level identification can also be influenced by poor enzymatic expressions that organisms may yield in stressed growth conditions often found in manufacturing environments when tested using phenotypic systems.

Download the complete study: Evaluating Library Databases for Microbial Identification: Critical Aspects and Recommendations Click here

Download the library comparison: Bacterial Library Listing and Comparison April 2011 Click here

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Contact Info:Missy Ruch
missyruch@accugenix.com

Accugenix, Inc.
223 Lake Drive
Newark, DE 19702
+1.302.294.8511
www.accugenix.com

Ulrich Herber, Ph.D., Managing Director, GmbH
ulrichherber@accugenix.com

Accugenix, GmbH
+49 (0)621 3709 556