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African Journal of
Microbiology Research Vol. 1 (7), 117-120,
December, 2007
ISSN 1996-0808 © 2007 Academic Journals
Full Length
Research Paper
Dielectric measurement of the resistance of
Trichosporon cutaneum against toxic
chemicals
Filadia P. Tileva1,
Lyubov K. Yotova1 and Gerard H. Markx2*
1Department
of Biotechnology, University of Chemical
Technology and Metallurgy, BU-1756 Sofia,
Bulgaria.
2School
of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Heriot-Watt
University, Riccarton, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK.
*Corresponding author.
E-mail:
G.H.Markx@hw.ac.uk.
Accepted 28 November, 2007 |
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Abstract |
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Conditioning of cultures
involves growing cells in the presence of
increasing amounts of a toxic chemical. In order
to investigate how conditioning affects a
culture’s ability to resist new challenges, the
resistance of Trichosporon cutaneum to
various toxic chemicals, before and after
conditioning to growth on phenol, was
investigated by measuring the capacitance of
cell suspensions at 0.4 MHz following a toxic
challenge. The results show that cells grown on
phenol are more resistant to the influence of
polar aromatic toxic chemicals such as phenol
(log Pow = 1.48) and
benzylalcohol (log Pow = 1.1),
but less resistant against less polar
non-aromatic compounds such as n-octanol
(log Pow = 2.9). In reverse,
cells grown on glucose were found to be more
resistant against n-octanol, but less so
against phenol and benzylalcohol. The results
indicate that cells, adapted to be more
resistant to one type of substance, may become
more susceptible to other compounds.
Key words:
conditioning, adaptation, membrane,
Trichosporon cutaneum, capacitance. |
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