Microbial viability assessment with PMA-qPCR: challenges, opportunities, and future directions

Since molecular analyzes are insufficient to distinguish living and non-living cells, lead to misleading results, and dead cells also multiply their DNA/RNA, a method that can give more sensitive results was needed. PMA (propidium monoazide), which is used to prevent the DNA of dead cells from negatively affecting the experimental results, is a viability indicator that binds only to the DNA of damaged cells and prevents them from being multiplied by PCR, and was first introduced in 2006. Recently the interest in the use of PMA in many fields such as microbiome and metagenomic studies, environmental microbiology, food microbiology, antibiotic and disinfectant effectiveness tests, clinical microbiology and diagnosis, and cell culture and biotechnology has increased considerably. Therefore, the purposes of use, principles, applications in various fields and limitations of PMA have been investigated. The current review of this vitality marker, which has a history of less than 20 years, will lead to its use of many new scientific studies and will provide convenience to scientists by bringing together studies on the use of this dye.