ABSTRACT
Gene probes in a variety of hybridization formats have been used for the detection, identification, and characterization of specific DNA segments. The versatility of gene probe analyses is demonstrated by the many clinical and environmental applications that have been developed. The continuing development of gene probes and hybridization applications for food analy ses has the potential to improve the rate of identification and characteriza tion of foodborne pathogenic microorganisms. This is especially important because the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report that the etiological agent was confirmed in only 38% of the recognized outbreaks of
foodborne disease in the United States (Bean et al., 1990), illustrating the challenge of detecting disease-causing microbes in foods.
