Enumeration of stressed cells of Escherichia coli

Abstract

Cells of Escherichia coli K-12 were stressed by heating at 48 °C or by acid treatment at pH 4.2 for periods up to 1 h. The addition of catalase to the selective medium increased the count of heat-stressed cells by 2.3-fold and acid-stressed cells by 4.8-fold. However, these values represented only a small percentage (3% for heat-stressed and 6% for acid-stressed cells respectively) of the population of injured but still viable cells. The addition of mannitol to the selective medium used to count acid-stressed cells did not increase the count. Whilst the presence of H2O2, in media may cause significant errors in the estimation of E. coli in certain situations these errors are unlikely to be significant in physiological studies of populations of cells injured by stress.