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Appl Environ Microbiol. 1974 August; 28(2): 169-171
Copyright © 1974 American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Radiometric Method for the Detection of Coliform Organisms in Water

Department of Molecular Biology, Hebrew University, Hadassah Medical School, Jerusalem, Israel

ABSTRACT

A new radiometric method for the detection of coliform bacteria in water has been described. The method is based on the release of ¹⁴CO₂ from [¹⁴C]lactose by bacteria suspended in growth medium and incubated at 37 C. The evolved ¹⁴CO₂ is trapped by hyamine hydroxide and counted in a liquid scintillation spectrometer. The method permits the detection of 1 to 10 organisms within 6 h of incubation. Coliform bacteria suspended in water for several days recover from starvation and may be quantitated by the proposed method. Bacteria from water samples may also be concentrated by filtration through membrane filters and detected by the radiometric assay.