Discussion
Together, these results demonstrate that flow cytometry is a reliable, precise, and user-friendly culture-independent method for bacterial enumeration.
Methods
Herein we present the
Results
A performance ring-test and comparison design on the FFC method showed that the method is robust against the exchange of equipment, procedures, materials, and operators. After initial method optimization with assessments of rehydration medium, wake-up duration, and phase shift gating on the individual strains, the IFC method showed good agreement with the FFC results. Specifically, we tested 6 distinct species of probiotic bacteria (3 Lactobacillus and 3 Bifidobacterium strains) finding good agreement between FFC and IFC results in terms of total and live cells.