An attempt was made to correlate the catalase production with the actual number of aerobic bacterial cells generating the enzyme: bacteria were obtained from the surface of marine fish. A linear correlation was found between the log of catalase activity and log of bacterial count in single culture

Krishna Iyer, H.

Lalitha, K.V.

Mahadeva Iyer, K.

Aquatic Commons

orrelation of Cell Numbers with Catalase Activities 
of Pure Strains of Bacteria 
The enzyme catalase is known to be pre-
sent in all obligatory aerobic bacteria (Callow 
1923; Me. Carthy & Hinshelwood, 1959). 
The role of this enzyme is to destroy the 
hydrogen peroxide formed as a metabolic 
end product, the accumulation of which is 
toxic to the organisms. 
The present investigation is an attempt 
to correlate the catalase production with 
the actual number of aerobic cells generating 
the enzyme. The cultures chosen were 
those isolated from the surface of fresh 
marine fish which harbour a high proportion 
of aerobic bacteria. 
The pure cultures so isolated and labelled 
Sl6, S18, S20, S25, S50 and S74 were grown 
in seawater agar (SW A) slants at room 
temperature (28 ± 2°C) for 24 h. The cells 
were washed out into clean sterile test tubes 
using sterile phosphat~ buffer (0.01 M, pH 
6.8). Suitable decimal dilutions in phos-
phate buffer were made and the count of 
bacteriajml was determined by pour plate 
method using SW A giving an incubation 
period of 48 h at room temperature. Simul-
taneously as soon as the dilutions were 
made, the catalase activity in the first four 
dilutions was determined by the method of 
Herbert (1955). 1 ml of 0.01 N sodium 
thiosulphate is equivalent to 5 IL mol of 
H 20 2 (Yona Yoshpe-Purer & Henis, 1976) 
and catlase activity expressed as fL ml H 20 2 
decomposed by 1 ml of the bacterial suspen-
sion. 
The log of bacterial count was plotted 
against log fL mol of H 20 2 decomposed 
(catalase activity). The regression equation 
and the coefficient of correlation for each 
bacterial culture are also given in Fig. 1. 
The significance of the correlation coeffi-
cient ranged between 5~~ and 0.01% for the 
different bacterial strains. 
The present study indicates that a linear 
correlation between log of catalase activity 
Central Institute of Fisheries Technology, 
Cochin - 682 029 
Vol. 21, 1984 
o---o S 25 Yc07202X-5·6057(rcb·9984) 
~ S 20 Ym0·8389X-6·5942(rs 09995) 
,......__. S 74 Ym0·7503X-5·6515(f""'09980) 
x-S 50 Ya0·9523X-69402(f""'09998) 
~SIS Yc0·775X-4·8447(rm0·9984) 
 S 16 Ym0·767X-47702(r.,0·9980) 
y .. log bacterial count. 
Xc log;Umol H2o2 
decompo·sed. 
r " linear correlafioo. 
-2·0 -1·0 
log pmol H2 02 decomposed/ml suspensYon 
20 
Fig. 1. Relationship between log bacterial count 
and log (J. mol of H 2 0 2 decomposed for 
different cultures of bacteria 
and log of bacterial count exists for single 
cultures. The figure also shows that the 
catalase activity differs with different strains. 
However, at least for pure strains of bacteria, 
the correlation can be made use of for rapid 
estimation of cell numbers. 
References 
Callow, A. B. (1923) J. Pathol. Bacterial. 
26, 320 
Herbert, D. (1955) Catalase from Bacteria 
in, 'Methods in Enzymology, Vol. II., 
Academic Press, Inc. New York 
Me. Carthy, B. J. & Hinshelwood, C. (1959) 
Proc. Roy. Soc. London, Ser. B150, 13 
Yona Yoshpe-Purer & Henis (1976) Appl. 
Environ. Microbial. 32, 465 
K. V. LALITHA, H. KRISHNA IYER 
A..ND K. MAHADEVA IYER 


Correlation of cell numbers with catalase activities of pure strains of bacteria

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Correlation of cell numbers with catalase activities of pure strains of bacteria

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