Inactivation effect of sonication and chlorination on Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Calorimetric analysis

The inactivation effects of ultrasonic irradiation at 27.5 kHz and chlorination using sodium hypochlorite solution (NaOCl) on the growth of Saccharomyces cerevisiae (yeast cells) were investigated. In order to evaluate the effect of ultrasound on the growth of the yeast cells, calorimetric analysis was carried out in addition to colony counting. The heat evolution produced by the growth of yeast cells detected by calorimetry showed completely different patterns between sonication and chlorination. In case of sonication, the yeast cells were inactivated almost like a bactericidal effect, i.e. a quantitative change in cell number, at the beginning of sonication. It was similar to patterns obtained on simple dilution of yeast cells. In contrast, longer sonication increased the bacteriostatic effect, i.e. qualitative damage of the cell growth activity, together with the bactericidal effect. These results suggest that the cavitation caused by ultrasonic irradiation initially disrupted the cells located near the cavitation bubble which caused immediate cell death and the growth activity of the surviving cells was gradually damaged by further sonication. On the other hand, only a bacteriostatic effect was observed when the yeast cells were inactivated by chlorination.