Improving Dispersion of Bacterial Endospores for Enumeration

KONA Powder and Particle Journal

Ben L. Koopman¹  Jue Zhao¹  Smithi Pumprueg¹  Brij M. Moudgil²  Vijay B. Krishna² 

[1] Particle Engineering Research Center, Department of Environmental Engineering Sciences, University of Florida, USA;Particle Engineering Research Center, Department of Materials Science and Engineering, University of Florida, USA;

关键词: spore;    enumeration;    plating;    agglomeration;    surfactant;    teflon;   

DOI  :  10.14356/kona.2016015

来源: DOAJ

【 摘 要 】

Precise enumeration of spores is crucial for accurate evaluation of spore survival in the presence of inactivating agents or extreme environmental conditions. Bacterial endospores tend to agglomerate, leading to low estimates of spore numbers. We have shown that addition of SDS to diluent used in counting bacterial endospores better disperses spores, leading to a ten-fold increase in counts. We attribute this effect to steric hindrance and electrostatic repulsion between micellar structures of SDS adsorbed at spore surfaces. We have also demonstrated that use of a low surface energy material (Teflon) improves spread-plate counts, an effect we attribute to lesser hold-up of liquid on Teflon versus glass.

【 授权许可】

Unknown