Reporter phage assays are very sensitive as they only detect active and viable cells. Another advantage is that the robustness of the assay and the high specificity of the phage, eliminating the need for lengthy sample preparation or purification. There is a large body of literature focusing on the construction and evaluation of many different reporter phages, such as luciferase reporter phage (LRP), green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter phage, LacZ reporter phage, Ice nucleation (inaW) reporter phage, CelB reporter phage, etc.
