Table 1.
Direct comparison of culture-dependent (plate counts) and culture-independent estimations of the abundance of bacteria in the phyllosphere
| Culture-independent methods | Objects | Portions of culturable bacteria* | Reference |
|---|---|---|---|
| qPCR | Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) Watercress (Circhorium endivia) | 0.5% 0.8% | Ruppel et al. (2008), unpublished cell numbers |
| qPCR | Field-grown lettuce (Lactuca sativa) | 0.1–8.4% 1–6% | Rastogi et al. (2010) Rastogi et al. (2012) |
| qPCR of Salmonella enterica serotype Typhimurium | Parsley (Petroselinum crispum) | 2% | Kisluk & Yaron (2012) |
| qPCR | Seeds of spinach (Spinacia oleracea) | 1% | Ponder et al. (2012) |
| Microscopic enumeration of DAPI-stained cells | Apple tree leaves | 0.1–1% | Yashiro et al. (2011) |
| Microscopic enumeration of DAPI-stained cells | Leaves of Arabidopsis thaliana | 3% | Reisberg et al. (2012), unpublished CFU, pers. commun. |
| Microscopic enumeration with Thoma chamber | Trifoliates of white clover (Trifolium repens) | 10% | Stiefel et al. (2013) |
| Microscopy of fluorescent nuclear-stained cells | |||
| Enumeration of total bacteria | Leaf sheaths of rice (Oryza sativa) | 23–35% | Niwa et al. (2011) |
| Enumeration of living bacteria | 30–50% | ||
*
Plate counts (CFU) related to number of cells determined culture independently.