Selection of pH buffers for use in conductimetric microbiological assays

Many metabolic activities of micro-organisms lead to changes in the pH value of cultures and consequently pH buffer compounds are potentially a major source of conductivity changes in cultures. To maximize changes in conductivity associated with microbial growth the pH buffer-associated changes should occur in a direction that reinforces those due to other metabolic activities. In agreement with this, studies with Escherichia coli showed that fermentation of glucose and aerobic growth on L-alanine yielded greater changes in the conductivity of media containing Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane or L-histidine buffers than in a medium containing phosphate buffer, whereas aerobic growth on glucose or succinate yielded greater changes with phosphate buffer than with Tris(hydroxymethyl)aminomethane or L-histidine buffers. Criteria for the selection of appropriate pH buffer compounds are presented.