DNA Isolation of Microbial Contaminants in Aviation Turbine Fuel via Traditional Polymerase Chain Reaction (PCR) and Direct PCR. Preliminary Results

摘要

Microbially contaminated aviation fuel cause the Air Force increased maintenance and replacement costs from problems such as fuel gauge malfunctions, fuel line and filter plugging, and corrosion. As a result, there is considerable interest in identifying microbial growth and finding strategies to mitigate it. Previous research to isolate and identify aviation fuel microbial contaminants has used cultivation-based methodologies. This study aimed to investigate newer molecular methods to more comprehensively characterize the bioburden in aviation fuel supplies. Several fuel samples were analyzed for bacterial contamination using two distinct methods: a cultivation-independent method (direct PCR) and a traditional cultivation-dependant method. A total of 36 bacterial genera were identified, including 28 genera which have not been previously reported in aviation fuel. Nearly 62% of the new bacterial genera were isolated with the cultivation-independent method only, 33% with both methods, and only 5% with the cultivation-dependant method only.