Microorganisms, like bacteria and fungi, are ubiquitous worldwide and can have different roles in human’s lives. Some will bring beneficial effects which are exploited and used in industrial and agricultural sectors. Contrariwise, some are responsible for several life-threatening diseases. Microbial analysis, surveillance and research is therefore crucial. Until recently, the classical culturing methods were widely used to study bacteria and fungi. However these methods, although considered the gold standard, are becoming now obsolete since they tend to be time-consuming, have low sensitivity and are unable to detect some cellular morphological states, as the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, leading to false negative results. Moving away from the classical methods, microbial detection is now evolving to new effective and rapid diagnostics. The arrival of molecular techniques has allowed a more specific and sensitive detection of microorganisms. During the past decades, this field has undergone a resounding evolution, with several strategies being developed for different applications and fields. In this Research Topic, the purpose is to encourage discussion aimed at integrating knowledge and to present a variety of methods and approaches for microbial detection, study and diagnosis using molecular approaches. We welcome manuscripts on but not limited to; PCR-based methods (such as RT-PCR; multiplex PCR, Fast-cycling PCR) and isothermal amplification methods such as Nucleic Acid Sequence-based Amplification (NASBA), Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP), Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA), Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) and Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA) and Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) (e.g. NAM-FISH, CARD-FISH, SeqFISH).
Microorganisms, like bacteria and fungi, are ubiquitous worldwide and can have different roles in human’s lives. Some will bring beneficial effects which are exploited and used in industrial and agricultural sectors. Contrariwise, some are responsible for several life-threatening diseases. Microbial analysis, surveillance and research is therefore crucial. Until recently, the classical culturing methods were widely used to study bacteria and fungi. However these methods, although considered the gold standard, are becoming now obsolete since they tend to be time-consuming, have low sensitivity and are unable to detect some cellular morphological states, as the viable but non-culturable (VBNC) state, leading to false negative results. Moving away from the classical methods, microbial detection is now evolving to new effective and rapid diagnostics. The arrival of molecular techniques has allowed a more specific and sensitive detection of microorganisms. During the past decades, this field has undergone a resounding evolution, with several strategies being developed for different applications and fields. In this Research Topic, the purpose is to encourage discussion aimed at integrating knowledge and to present a variety of methods and approaches for microbial detection, study and diagnosis using molecular approaches. We welcome manuscripts on but not limited to; PCR-based methods (such as RT-PCR; multiplex PCR, Fast-cycling PCR) and isothermal amplification methods such as Nucleic Acid Sequence-based Amplification (NASBA), Loop-mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP), Strand Displacement Amplification (SDA), Recombinase Polymerase Amplification (RPA) and Rolling Circle Amplification (RCA) and Fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) (e.g. NAM-FISH, CARD-FISH, SeqFISH).