Monitoring of mutagenic process with piezoelectric quartz crystal impedance analysis

A novel method for monitoring of mutagenic process of dimethyl sulfate to S almonella typhimurium strain (TA100) was proposed by using piezoelectric qu artz crystal impedance (PQCI) analysis technique. The time courses of respo nses piezoelectric impedance parameters for a quartz crystal in a culture s ystem were simultaneously obtained and discussed. It was found that the mot ional resistance variation (DeltaR(m)) increases and frequency shift (Delta f) of PQC sensor decreases correspondingly during the mutagenic process of the bacteria. These parameters could reflect the variations of viscosity an d density of culture system. By fitting DeltaR(m) versus time curves toward Gompertz bacterial growth model, we obtained and discussed the bacterial g rowth parameters for both normal growth and mutagenic process. The experime nts showed that the proposed method could provide real time and multidimens ional impedance information to the monitoring of mutagenic process. (C) 200 0 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.