Ultraviolet (UV) light inactivation of
Escherichia coli was investigated with the endonuclease sensitive site (ESS) assay which can detect the UV-induced pyrimidine dimers in the genomic DNA. High correlation was observed between the UV dose irradiated for
E.coli and the number of ESS induced in the DNA of
E.coli (r
2=0.996). The survival ratio of
E.coli also showed high correlation with the number of ESS induced in the DNA (r
2=0.999). Photoreactivation of
E.coli after 99.9% inactivation by UV irradiation was also investigated with ESS assay. During the exposure to fluorescent light, ESS in the DNA of
E.coli were continuously repaired while the survival ratio of them gradually recovered. The number of ESS was correlated with the survival ratio of
E.coli during fluorescent light irradiation (r
2=0.937), indicating that the repair of pyrimidine dimers in the genomic DNA would contribute to the survival recovery of
E.coli during photoreactivation. It was indicated, in this study, that ESS assay was useful to investigate UV inactivation and photoreactivation of
E.coli quantitatively.
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