Study on Rapid Determination of ATP Levels in Microbial Cells Using Bioluminescence

摘要

ATP levels in 32 strains of bacteria, mould spores and yeasts cell were determined by bioluminescence in the study. After the microbial cells treated by ATP releasing reagent EC, the ATP concentration in microbial cells could be calculated by count pulse per minute (CPM) according to ATP concentration standard curve equation Log[ATP]=-12.763+1.097 Log [cpm] (R=0.984). It was found that ATP levels in bacterial cells, mould spores and yeast cells were 0.18X10~(-16)～8.75X10~(-16) g/cell (average 2.44 X 10~(-16) g/cell), 0.68 X 10~(-15)～6.30X10~(-15) g/cell (average 2.47 X 10~(-15) g/cell), and 0.22X10~(-14)～7.79 X 10~(-14) g/cell (average 1.91 X 10~(-14) g/cell) respectively. ATP levels in yeast cells were 10～100 times of that in bacterial cells. Therefore ATP bioluminescent method could be applied to the determination of microbial number and shorten the microbial testing time greatly.