A Propidium Monoazide-Assisted Digital CRISPR/Cas12a Assay for Selective Detection of Live Bacteria in Sample

Escherichia coli O157:H7 (E. coli O157:H7) is a prominent pathogenic bacterium that poses serious risks to food safety and public health. Rapid and accurate detection of live E. coli O157:H7 is of great importance in food quality monitoring and clinical diagnosis. Here, we report a propidium monoazide-assisted nonamplification digital CRISPR/Cas12a assay for sensitive and rapid detection of live E. coli O157:H7. The incorporation of propidium monoazide into the method enables the selective detection of live bacteria by eliminating 98% of interference from the dead bacterial nucleic acid. Implemented on microfluidic digital chips, this method can achieve absolute quantification of nonamplified nucleic acid. The entire detection process of live bacteria can be completed within 120 min without the need for establishing a standard curve, and the sensitivity of the method reaches 1.2 × 10³ CFU/mL. The method was validated using various samples, yielding results consistent with the plate counting method (Pearson’s r = 0.9490). Consequently, this method holds significant potential for applications in fields requiring live bacterial detection.