Testing vitality

As we have to clear out some more space in -70C freezer, I also start to check the vitality of Campylobacters in the freezer; if they're not growing then we may throw them away (not rubbish bin, of course). Consider the space in the candle jar, I inoculated 14 isolates (SC1 - SC14) onto 7 charcoal agar plates (i.e. 2 beads/plate). And also, some referable papers about "species-specific PCR" are founded. Looks like they are based on 16S rRNA, nested PCR, real-time RT-PCR or RFLP methods. Some Campylobacter-specific primers are also reported. This could be the way I can go.