Microbiology Lecture #2.

A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020

MEASUREMENTS OF MICROBIAL CONC.

OUTLINE:
I. BACTERIAL GROWTH
A. MEASUREMENTS OF MICROBIAL CONCENTRATIONS 2 Parameters in Measuring Microbial
II. BACTERIAL GROWTH CYCLE Concentrations
III. GROWTH CURVE IN BATCH CULTURE
IV. BACTERIAL GROWTH CURVE: 4 PHASES the no. of viable
V. MAINTENANCE OF CELLS IN THE EXPONENTIAL PHASE
VI. GROWTH IN BIOFILM CELL CONCENTRATION cells per unit
VII. DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT OF BACTERIAL DEATH volume of culture
VIII. STERILIZATION AND DISINFECTION
A. Sterilization dry weight of cells
B. Disinfection BIOMASS per unit volume of
C. Antisepsis
D. Disinfectants DENSITY/CONCENTRATION culture
E. Biocide
F. Sanitization
IX. FACTORS AFFECTING HOW LONG IT TAKES TO KILL A BACTERIA
X. PHYSICAL METHODS OF STERILIZATION
A. Heat is typically considered the
1. Moist Heat
2. Dry Heat measure of cell
B. Dessication concentration. For this, a 1-
C. Freezing
D. Radiation mL volume is removed from a
1. Ultraviolet Light bacterial suspension and
2. Ionizing Radiation
E. Filtration
Viable Cell Count serially diluted 10-fold
F. Osmotic Pressures followed by plating 0.1-mL
G. Ultrasonic and Sonic Vibrations aliquots on a suitable agar
H. Organic Acids
XI. CHEMICAL METHODS OF STERILIZATION medium. Each single invisible
A. Factors Affecting Disinfectant Potency bacterium (or clump of
B. Evaluation of Disinfectants
C. Mechanisms of Action of Chemical Agents bacteria) will grow into a
1. Damage the Cell Membrane visible colony that can be
 Surface-active disinfectants counted
 Phenolic compounds
 Alcohol Turbidity is the cloudiness or
 Lysozyme haziness of a fluid caused by
 Penicillin
2. Agents that Denature Proteins
Turbidity large numbers of individual
 Acids and alkalis particles that are generally
 Alcohol and acetone invisible to the naked eye
 Phenol
 Heat In principle, biomass can be
3. Agents that Modify Functional Groups of Proteins and measured directly by
Nucleic Acids
 Heavy metals
Biomass Density determining
 Oxidizing agents the dry weight of a microbial
 Dyes culture after it has been
 Alkylating Agents
4. Chemical Antagonism
washed with distilled water
XII. RELATIONSHIP OF BIOCIDE CONCENTRATION AND TIME ON
ANTIMICROBIAL KILLING
XIII. REVERSAL OF BIOCIDE ACTION
THE BACTERIAL GROWTH CYCLE
XIV. REFERENCES  Bacteria reproduce by binary fission -> one parent
Black = PPT cell divides to form 2 progeny cells
Red = Book  Exhibit exponential or logarithmic growth
 One bacterium will produce 16 bacteria after 4
BACTERIAL GROWTH generations
 An orderly increase in the sum of all components  The doubling time (generation time) of bacteria
of an organism ranges from as little as 20 minutes for E. coli to
 A process that entails the replication of all cellular more than 24 hours for M. tuberculosis
structures, organelles & components
 Needs a source of energy & suitable Additional Notes:
environmental conditions Microbial growth refers to the increase in the
 The increase in size that results when a cell takes number of microbes creating a colony. A colony is
up water or deposits lipid or polysaccharide is not the aggregation of cells arising from a single parent
true growth cell. The time required for the growth and
reproduction of bacteria is known as the doubling
 Cell multiplication is a consequence of binary
time or generation time. Bacteria reproduce by
fission that leads to an increase in the number of
binary fission, meaning a parent cell divides to
single bacteria making up a population, referred to
produce two daughter cells exhibiting exponential or
as a culture
logarithmic growth. The doubling time of bacteria
differs from one another.

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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020

THE GROWTH CURVE IN BATCH CULTURE  The typical growth curve may be discussed in
terms of four phases (Table 4-2)
 A If a fixed volume of liquid medium is inoculated  Batch culture is a closed system with finite
with microbial cells taken from a culture that has resources; this is very different from the
previously been grown to saturation and the environment of the human host where nutrients
number of viable cells per milliliter is determined are metabolized by bacteria and human cells
periodically and plotted, a curve of the type shown
in Figure 4-2 is usually obtained.
 The phases of the bacterial growth curve shown in
Figure 4-2 are reflections of the events in a
population of cells, not in individual cells.
 This type of culture is referred to as a batch
culture.

BACTERIAL GROWTH CURVE: 4 PHASES

LAG PHASE LOG PHASE or STATIONARY PHASE DEATH PHASE or PHASE OF DECLINE
 Characterized by EXPONENTIAL PHASE  Cessation of growth as a  Final phase or phase of decline
vigorous metabolic  Period of rapid cell division; result of nutrient  Marked by a decline in the number of
activity; increase in cell period when generation depletion and viable bacteria
size time can be determined accumulation of toxic  Dead bacteria more than viable bacteria
 Period of cell adaptation  Cells are in a steady state wastes  A bacterial culture phenomenon referred
and adjustment after  New cell material are being  Living cells equals dead to as viable but not culturable (VBNC)
metabolites are depleted synthesized cells cells, is thought to be the result of a
 Enzymes are synthesized  Increase in number of cells  Production of spores genetic response triggered in starving,
until they are enough to (sporulation) begin stationary phase cells.
resume growth  Just as some bacteria form spores as a
survival mechanism, others can become
dormant without changes in morphology.
 When the appropriate conditions are
available (eg, passage through an
animal), VNBC microbes resume growth.

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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020
MAINTENANCE OF CELLS IN THE EXPONENTIAL
PHASE
CHEMOSTAT
 Most common type of continuous culture device
 consists of a culture vessel equipped with an
overflow siphon and a mechanism for dripping in
fresh medium from a reservoir at a regulated rate
BIOFILM FORMATION
 Forming layer upon layer of growth
 begin with a single bacterium nucleating on a
surface followed by binary fission and ultimately to
the formation of an intimate community of progeny
bacteria
 Quorum Sensing
o Bacteria within a biofilm produce small
molecules
o such as homoserine lactones, which are
taken up by adjacent bacteria and
functionally serve as a colony
“telecommunication” system
o informing individual bacteria to turn on
certain genes at a particular time
GROWTH IN BIOFILM
 Biofilm promotes increased metabolic
diversity
o bacteria on the periphery of the biofilm
may have more access to oxygen and
other nutrients than organisms on the
inner portions of the film
o On the other hand, cells on the inner
portions may be shielded from predation
by immune cells, or from antibiotics
DEFINITION AND MEASUREMENT OF BACTERIAL
DEATH
THE MEANING OF BACTERIAL DEATH
 Death means the irreversible loss of the ability to
reproduce (grow and divide).
 A cell is considered dead if it fails to give rise to
a colony on appropriate medium
THE MEASUREMENT OF BACTERIAL DEATH
 probability of a given cell’s dying is constant per
unit time
 For example, if a condition is used that causes
90% of the cells to die in the first 10 minutes, the
probability of any one cell dying in a 10-minute
interval is 0.9.
 Thus, it may be expected that 90% of the surviving
cells will die in each succeeding 10-minute
interval, and a death curve can be generated.
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STERILIZATION AND DISINFECTION
Sterilization
 Process of completely destroying all microbial
forms, including bacterial spores, naked
viruses. Mycobacteria and fungi
Disinfection
 Process by which most microbial forms are
destroyed but not saprophytes and bacterial
spores
Antisepsis
 Process by which a substance is applied to the
skin for the purpose of eliminating or reducing
the number of bacteria present;
 Do not kill spores; cannot be used as
disinfectants
Disinfectants
 Chemical agents applied to inanimate objects
 Classified as:
a. High-level disinfectants
-kill all forms of pathogens but not large
numbers bacterial endospores
b. Intermediate-level disinfectants
-kill all microbial pathogens but not
bacterial endospores
c. Low-level disinfectants
-kill most vegetative forms of
microorganisms
Biocide
 Can be a broad spectrum physical or chemical
agent that can inactivate microorganisms
 Germicide
Sanitization
 The process of reducing cross-infection
whereby pathogenic organisms are reduces to
safe levels
FACTORS AFFECTING HOW LONG IT TAKES
TO KILL A BACTERIA
1. Type of organism
2. Size of inoculum
3. Concentration of disinfecting agent
-the lower the concentration of disinfecting
agent, the longer it takes to kill the
bacteria
4. Nature of surface to be disinfected
5. Contact time
6. Temperature – generally at room temp
(20-22C)
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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020
7. pH
-COVID can still survive at pH as high as
8.5-9.0
8. Biofilm formation
-community of bacteria or other
microorganisms that have a protective
layer over them which makes them
protected from outside environmental
factors
9. Compatibility of disinfectants and
sterilants
PHYSICAL METHODS OF STERILIZATION
Heat
 Most reliable and universally applicable
method of sterilization
 A gradual process; kinetics of death are
exponential
 The time required for sterilization is inversely
related to the temperature of exposure
(Zinsser Microbiology, 20th).
 The relationship between sterilization and the
temperature of exposure is expressed in terms
of THERMAL DEATH TIME
o The minimum time required to kill a
suspension of organism at a
predetermined temperature in a
specified environment.
 In accordance with the law of mass action, the
sterilization time is directly related to the
number of organisms in the suspension
(Zinsser Microbiology, 20th).
Mechanism of Thermal Injury
1. Production of single strands breaks in DNA
– primary lethal event
-Enzymatic in nature and the result of
activation of nuclease
-The loss of viability of cells exposed to mild
heat can be correlated with the introduction of
these breaks (Zinsser Microbiology, 20th)
2. Loss of functional integrity of the
membrane – damage to the cell membrane
causes small molecules to leak out of the
membrane
-Ribonucleases are activated by heat and
cause degradation of ribosomes
-There appears to be a correlation between
the degradation of rRNA and the loss of
viability of cells exposed to high temperatures
(Zinsser Microbiology, 20t)
3. Denaturation and coagulation of proteins
4. Oxidative damage
5. Toxic effects of elevated levels of
electrolytes
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A. Moist Heat
 Preferred over dry heat because of its more
rapid killing action
 Exposure of most mesophilic non-spore-
forming bacteria to most heat at 60C for 30
minutes is sufficient for sterilization. Among
the exceptions are S. aureus and
Enterococcus faecalis, which require an
exposure time of 60 minutes at 60C (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th).
 Destroy vegetative forms of microorganisms at
a temperature of 80C for 5-10 minutes but
spores (Clostridium botulinum) are more
resistant and would require 4 minutes
exposure to 120C or 5.5 hours at 100C.
Forms of Moist Heat
1. Steam Under Pressure (Autoclaving)
 Most efficient method of sterilization
 Steam is confined in a close vessel
and the temperature of the steam
inside the vessel is increased.
-At 15 lbs of pressure per square
inch, the temperature of the steam
reaches 121C which would only
take 15-20 minutes to sterilize the
material. (The time required for
sterilization varies with the bulk of
the material.)
 Use: sterilization of surgical bandages
and instruments, culture media, and
other contaminated materials.
2. Boiling
 Kills all vegetative forms of pathogenic
organisms at 80C-100C but not the
bacterial spores
3. Fractional Sterilization (Tyndallization)
 For sterilization of materials that would
be damaged by autoclaving
 Mechanism of action: material is
exposed to live steam at 80-100C for
30 minutes for 3 consecutive days
-In between exposure, the material
is kept at room temperature to
allow germination of any spores
present.
-The second exposure is to destroy
the new crop of vegetative cells.
-The third exposure is to ensure an
additional margin of safety.
 Useful in sterilizing heat-sensitive
culture media containing such
materials as carbohydrates, egg, or
serum (Zinsser Microbiology, 20th).
 Not a very reliable method
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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020
4. Pasteurization
 Rapid heating at temperature of 60C-
65C followed by rapid cooling
 Used in sterilization of milk, foods and
beverages
B. Dry Heat
 Requires higher temperature and longer
exposure to heat
 Its effectiveness depends on the
penetration of heat through the material to
be sterilized
 Most widely used type is the hot air oven
 Sterilization takes place at 180C for 2
hours
 Used in the sterilization of powders, oils,
jellies and glassware
 Other useful forms: incineration and open
flame
Dessication
 Mechanism of action: removal of moisture 
bacteria cannot grow in an environment
without moisture  bacterial multiplication is
inhibited
 Bacterial spores are resistant to drying or
dessication
 Used only in the preservation of foods
Freezing
 Many microorganisms can survive low
temperature for very long periods of time 
freezing cannot be used as a means of
sterilization
 Used to preserve microorganisms and
bacterial culture
 LYOPHILLIZATION – a technique of
preserving microorganisms wherein the
organism is frozen rapidly and dehydrated in
high vacuum and then stored under vacuum in
sealed ampules in cold storage. (According to
Dr. Casimiro, this is his favorite question in his
examinations.)
Radiation
A. Ultraviolet light (UVL)
 The most effective bactericidal
wavelength of UVL is 240-280 nm with
an optimum of 260 nm that
corresponds to the maximum
absorption of the bacterial DNA
 Mechanism of action: disrupt H bonds
in microbial cell resulting to the
formation of thymine dimers 
produce lethal frame shift mutations
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 Has limited applications because of its
poor penetrating ability and its
absorption by glass and water
 Primarily used in the reduction of
airborne infections in enclosed areas
like operating rooms and hospital
wards
B. Ionizing radiation
 The ionizing radiations of greatest
practical value for sterilization are
electromagnetic x-rays and -rays and
the particulate cathode rays (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th)
 Has greater penetrating ability than
UVL but are potentially hazardous to
human cells
 Mechanism of action: cause the
formation of free radicals that
chemically interact with proteins and
nucleic acids causing cell death
Filtration
 Principal method used in the lab for
sterilization of heat-labile materials (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th)
 A form of mechanical sieving or physical
separation of microorganisms from the fluid
 Makes use of high-efficiency particulate air
filters for cellulose ester membranes but the
filter pore size of 0.22 um allows very small
organisms to pass through (e.g. viruses,
Mycoplasma)
Osmotic pressures
 When the concentrations of the solution
surrounding the bacterial cell is altered it may
cause the bacterial cell to collapse or become
turgid
 Used in food preservation
Ultrasonic and Sonic Vibrations
 Principle: sound vibrations at high frequency in
the upper audible and ultrasonic range are
very useful in disrupting the cell
 Sound wave generators employed operate at
a range of 9-100 kc
 Mechanism:
passage of sound through the liquid 
produce alternating pressures 
cause cavities to form in the liquid 
cavities continue to grow in size 
burst violently 
cause the cells to disintegrate
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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020
-Cavitation also produces chemical
and physical changes in the
suspending medium which may be
deleterious to certain enzymes.
MECHANISMS OF ACTION OF CHEMICAL AGENTS
Organic Acids (Jawetz, 27th)
 Used as preservatives in the pharmaceutical
and food industries
 Benzoic acid – fungistatic
 Propionic acid - bacteriostatic and fungistatic
CHEMICAL METHODS OF STERILIZATION
Factors Affecting Disinfectant Potency
1. Concentration of the chemical agent
-Dependent on the material being disinfected
and the organism to be destroyed
-Higher concentrations will be bactericidal and
a weaker concentration will be bacteriostatic
2. Time
3. Temperature
-The killing of bacteria by chemical agents
increases with an increase in temperature
-Increase in temperature speeds up rate of
chemical reaction
4. pH
-The hydrogen ion concentration influence
both the organism and the chemical agent
-Determines the degree of ionization of the
chemical agent
5. Nature of the medium
-The presence of extraneous materials
decreases the efficiency of chemical agent by:
a. surface absorption of the disinfectant by
protein colloids
b. formation of chemically invert or less active
compounds
c. binding of disinfectant by active groups of
the foreign proteins
6. Nature of the organism
-The presence of special structures like spores
or capsule and the number of the organisms in
the medium to be tested greatly affects
disinfection
-The species of organism, the growth phase of
the culture and the previous history of the
culture are also important (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th)
EVALUATION OF DISINFECTANTS
Phenol Coefficient Test
 Phenol serves as a standard reference
material
 Based on the tube dilutions procedure
designed to determine the ratio of the highest
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dilution that will kill the organism within a
specified time to the greatest dilution of phenol
showing the same result
A. Damage the Cell Membrane
 Chemical agents interfere with the normal
membrane function  release of small
metabolites and interference with active
transport and energy metabolism
1. Surface active disinfectants
 Agents that alter the energy relationships at
interfaces producing a reduction of surface
tension
 Included here are cationic, anionic, nonionic,
and amphoteric substances. Of these, the
cationic and anionic compounds have been
the most useful (Zinsser Microbiology, 20th)
a. Cationic agents – quaternary ammonium
compounds
 The most important antibacterial
surface-active agents (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th)
 Mechanisms:
1. Distortion of cell membrane and
loss of membrane permeability 
leakage of nitrogen and phosphorous
containing compounds
2. Denaturation of proteins
 Bacteriostatic at low concentration and
bactericidal at high concentration but
not effective against viruses and
bacterial spores
 Most effective at alkaline pH
 Example: zephiran, benzalkonium
chloride cetylpyridinium chloride
b. Anionic agents
 Mechanism: disruption of the
lipoprotein framework of the cell
membrane
 Most effective at acid pH
 Effective against gram (+) organisms
but are relatively ineffective against
gram (-) species because of their
lipopolysaccharide outer membrane
(Zinsser Microbiology, 20th)
 Example: soaps and detergents
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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020
2. Phenolic compounds
 Mechanism: cause disruption of lipid-
containing membranes causing leakage of cell
contents and irreversible inactivation of
membrane bound oxidases and
dehydrogenases
 Includes phenols and cresols
o Phenols are now used only as a
reference to testing new chemical
agents because they are toxic to
human cells
o Cresols are alkyl phenols that are
less toxic and more active than phenol
-Example of cresols are Lysol and
creolin
o Bis-phenols – linked phenol
compounds whose activity is
enhances by halogenation e.g.
hexachloropene which is effective
against gram (+) bacteria, especially
Staphylococci and Streptococci
3. Alcohols
 Mechanisms
a. Disorganize lipid structure by penetrating
into the hydrocarbon region
b. Denatures cellular proteins
 Capable of destroying almost all microbes
except spores
 Inactivated by organic matters
 Activity is greater in the presence of water
 Includes:
a. Ethyl alcohol
-Most effective at concentration of 50-70%
-Widely used as skin disinfectant because
it is bactericidal and remove lipids from the
skin surfaces
-Cannot destroy spores at normal
temperature
b. Isopropyl alcohol
-Bactericidal activity is slightly greater than
ethanol and less volatile
-Has greater toxic effect than ethanol like
narcosis due to the absorption of vapors
4. Lysozyme
-cleaves the sugar linkages of peptidoglycans
5. Penicillin
-interrupts peptidyl cross-linkages
(Jawetz, 27th)
B. Agents that Denature Proteins
 Disruption of tertiary structure of protein
(Jawetz, 27th)
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 The backbone of cellular structures are
made up primarily of proteins
 Enzymes that catalyze metabolic reactions
are also made up of proteins
 Any changes in these proteins would
greatly affect the structure of the cell
 Includes:
1. Acids and alkalis – exert their action
through their free H and OH ions 
alter the pH of the organism’s
environment
 Benzoic acid – widely used as
a food preservative, approx. 7x
as effective as HCl (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th)
2. Alcohol and acetone
3. Phenol
4. Heat – physical agent (Jawetz, 27th)
C. Agents that Modify Functional Groups of
Proteins and Nucleic Acids
1. Heavy metals
 Mechanism: poison the enzyme activity
forming mercaptides with the SH groups of
cysteine residues
 Includes
a. Mercurials – merthiolate and
mercurochrome; useful antiseptic agents
but unreliable disinfectants
b. Silver compunds – bactericidal
o Silver nitrate – silver salt; highly
bactericidal against gonococci and
used as prophylaxis of ophthalmia
neonatorum
o Silver sulfadiazine – used in burn
patients
2. Oxidizing Agents
 Mechanism: inactivates enzymes by
converting functional SH groups to oxidized
S-S form
 Stronger agents also attack amino groups,
indole groups and phenolic hydroxyl group of
tyrosine
 The most useful antimicrobial agents in this
group are the halogens and hydrogen
peroxide (Zinsser Microbiology, 20th)
 Includes:
a. Halogens – bactericidal and effective
against sporulating organisms
o Iodine – considered the best
antiseptic
 Active against spores, viruses,
fungi, amoeba
 Mixtures of iodine with surface
active agents are known as
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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020
iodophores and widely used
for the sterilization of dairy
equipment
o Chlorine – disinfectant action is due to
the liberation of free chlorine
 Used as water disinfectant
 Hypochlorite (OCl2) – widely used
in the food and dairy industries for
sanitizing dairy and food
processing equipment
 Also used in households and
hospitals
 Chlorhexidine – slow-acting
antiseptic than alcohol but has a
broad spectrum of antimicrobial
activity
 Parachlorometaxylenol (PCMX) –
used in handwashing products;
only effective against gram (+)
bacteria
b. Hydrogen peroxide – weak antiseptic
and primarily used in cleansing wounds
and in the disinfection of surgical devices
and soft plastic contact lenses
 H2O2 vapors – used in the
sterilization of instruments
 Plasma gas sterilization –
replaced ethylene oxide in many
applications because it produces
nontoxic by-products
c. Peracetic acid – a reliable sterilant
whose byproducts (acetic acid and
oxygen) are nontoxic
3. Dyes
 The basic dyes are the most effective (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th)
 Its use is limited to the treatment of
dermatologic lesions
 Also used in staining bacteria
 Include:
a. Triphenylmethane dyes
o Brilliant green, malachite green,
crystal violet
o Highly selective for gram (+) bacteria
because in gram (-) organisms,
lipopolysaccharide in the outer
membrane provides a major penetration
barrier for the uptake of the dye (Zinsser)
b. Acridines
o Often referred to as “flavines” because
of their yellow color (Zinsser
Microbiology, 20th)
o Used for wound antisepsis
o Unlike aniline dyes, they retain
their antimicrobial activity in the
presence of serum or pus
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4. Alkylating Agents
 Inhibition produced by such agents is
irreversible, resulting in enzyme modification
and inhibition of enzyme activity (Zinsser)
a. Formaldehyde
 Commercially available as 37% formalin
 Uses:
1. Prevention of specimens
2. Preparation of vaccines
3. Kill M. tuberculosis in sputum and fungus
in athlete’s foot
 Destroy organism including spores
 Formaldehyde gas – its use is
limited to sterilization of filters and
treatment of textiles because it is
carcinogenic
b. Glutaraldehyde
 Ten times more effective than
formaldehyde and less toxic
 Used as cold sterilant for surgical
instruments especially respiratory therapy
instruments
c. Ethylene oxide
 Used extensively in gaseous sterilization;
slow acting
 Effective against all types of bacteria
including spores and tubercle bacilli
 Used for materials that would be damaged
by heat like polyethylene tubes, electronic
and medical equipment, biologicals and
drugs
 Especially useful in sterilization of heart-
lung machines
 Potentially mutagenic and carcinogenic to
humans
 Flammable and explosive
Chemical Antagonism (Jawetz, 27th)
 Interference by a chemical agent with the normal
reaction between a specific enzyme and its
substrate
 Antagonists act by combining with some part of
the holoenzyme thereby preventing attachment of
normal substrate
A. Antagonists of energy-yielding processes
1. Carbon monoxide - poison of respiratory
enzymes
2. Cyanide - poison of respiratory enzymes
3. Dinitrophenol – poison of oxidative
phosphorylation
B. Antagonists of biosynthetic processes
 Amino acids and nucleic acid analogs
-prevents incorporation of the normal
metabolite or replaces the normal metabolite
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 Microbiology Lecture #2.A
GROWTH, SURVIVAL, & DEATH OF MICROORGANISMS
Dr. HA Casimiro | September 30, 2020

RELATIONSHIP OF BIOCIDE CONCENTRATION

AND TIME ON ANTIMICROBIAL KILLING
 The concentration of the substance used is
REFERENCES
related to the time required to kill a given
fraction of the population by the following
expression: Cnt = K  Dr. Casimiro’s powerpoint presentation
 Example, if n=6 for phenol, doubling the  Jawetz Medical Microbiology, 27th & 28th Edition
concentration of the drug will reduce the time  Zinsser Microbiology, 20th Edition
required to achieve the same extent of
inactivation 64-fold (Jawetz, 27th)
END OF TRANSCRIPTION

REVERSAL OF BIOCIDE ACTION

(Jawetz, 27th)

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