Effect of environmental stresses on the mean and distribution of individual cell lag times of Escherichia coli O157:H7

The effect of starvation, heat or acid stress on duration of individual cell lag time (τ) and standard deviation (SD) of τ was investigated using Escherichia coli O157:H7. Cells were stressed by exposure to acid (pH 3.5), heat (50 °C), or starvation in either glucose-free mineral medium (MOPS), tryptic soy broth (TSB) or Luria broth (LB). Stressed cells were then diluted into wells of a Bioscreen plate to obtain single cells per well. Replicate time to detection (td) values were obtained using the Bioscreen and used to calculate the τ and SD. Significant (P ≤ 0.05) increases in τ over untreated controls were found for the following treatments: 14 days in acid; 2 h of heating; 3 days starvation in MOPS; and 2 days starvation in either TSB or LB. The largest increase in τ was > 2-fold from 2.5 to 5.6 h observed with the heat treatment. MOPS starvation was more detrimental to the cells than was acid treatment over the same time period. A significant increase in SD was found with 21 days acid treatment, and 2 days starvation in either TSB or LB. No significant increase in SD was found for MOPS starvation or heat treatment. Lognormal, Gamma, ExtremeValue and Weibull distributions were fitted to the τ data using BestFit. The results suggest that the Lognormal distribution is suitable for fitting τ data from either stressed or unstressed cells.