Microbiology and Parasitology

FHS 450
USEK

PROF. SHAFIKA ASSAAD

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FACTORS INFLUENCING
MICROBIAL GROWTH
The ability of microorganisms to grow or multiply is determined.

Salinity
pH

Nutrients Temperature

Moisture
Gaseous
and Aw
Atmospher
e

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FACTORS FOR GROWTH
Intrinsic factors of a food include nutrients, growth factors, and inhibitors (or
antimicrobials), water activity, pH, and oxidation-reduction potential.
.1. Nutrients and Growth:
Microbial growth is accomplished through the synthesis of cellular components and energy.
The necessary nutrients for this process are derived from the immediate environment of a
microbial cell, they include carbohydrate, proteins, lipids, minerals and vitamins.
Water is not considered a nutrient, but it is essential as a medium for biochemical
reactions.
Nutrients serve as sources of Carbon, Oxygen, Hydrogen, Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Sulfur.

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FACTORS FOR GROWTH
.2. Moisture and Water activity:
Cell consists of 70 to 95% of water, and all living organisms need water to carry out their
metabolic processes.
And only a few stages of the life cycle of certain microbes can live without water => survive
desiccation.
Desiccation is the state of extreme dryness, or the process of extreme drying.
Bacterial spores and protozoan cysts can withstand desiccation.

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FACTORS FOR GROWTH
3 pH:
Depending on the type, the pH of a food can vary greatly. On the basis of pH, foods can be
grouped as high-acid foods (pH below 4.6) and low-acid foods (pH 4.6 and above).
Most fruits, fruit juices, fermented foods (from fruits, vegetables, meat and milk), and salad
dressings are high-acid (low-pH) foods, whereas most vegetables, meat, fish, milk, and soups are
low-acid (high-pH) foods.

The pH of a food has a profound effect on the growth and viability of microbial cells. Each
species has an optimum pH and a range of pH for growth.

In general, molds and yeasts are able to grow at lower pH than do bacteria.

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FACTORS FOR GROWTH
1. ACIDOPHILIC BACTERIA (ACIDOPHILES) live in acidic media and can be present in the
stomach like H. pylori.
2. ALKALIPHYLIC BACTERIA (ALKALIPHILES) prefer basic environment (pH>8.5) such as bacteria
in the intestine or in the soil

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FACTORS FOR GROWTH
4. Salinity:
When the concentrations inside and outside the cell are equal, the cell
is in a isotonic medium.
When the [solutes] in the environment outside the cell is greater than
the concentrations inside the cell, we say the cell is in a hypertonic
medium. In this case, water leaves the cell by osmosis in order to make
the concentrations equal and leads to a case of shrinkage of the cell
membrane.
If the [solutes] outside is less than the concentrations inside the cell,
the cell is in a hypotonic medium. In this case, water enters the cell in
attempt to equalize the concentrations, resulting in cell rupture.

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FACTORS FOR GROWTH
1. HALOPHILIC BACTERIA are able to live in an environment that has a high salinity such as
ocean, saline soils, and salt food products. According to their degrees of salt requirements,
they are classified into 3 groups: slight (0.34-0.85M salt), moderate (0.85-3.4M salt) and
extreme halophiles (3.4-5.1M salt). Example: V. cholera.
2. HALODURIC BACTERIA do not prefer to live in salty environments but are capable of
surviving there such as S. aureus.

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B. FACTORS FOR GROWTH
Extrinsic factors important in microbial growth include the environmental conditions in which
food is stored. These are temperature, relative humidity, and gaseous environment.
The relative humidity and gaseous condition of storage, influence the Aw of the food.
B.1. Temperature:
Foods are exposed to different temperatures from the time of production until consumption.
Depending on the processing conditions, a food can be exposed to high heat, from 65°C
(roasting of meat) to more than 100°C (in ultrahigh temperature processing).
For long-term storage, a food can be kept at 10 to 35°C (refrigeration) to -20°C or below
(freezing).
Different temperatures are also used to stimulate desirable microbial growth in food
fermentation.

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B. FACTORS FOR GROWTH
Microorganisms are divided into THREE groups on the basis of their temperature of growth,
each group having an OPTIMUM temperature.
1. THERMOPHILES growing at relatively high temperature with an optimum of 55°C and range
45-70°C.
2. MESOPHILES growing at ambient temperature with an optimum at 35°C and range 10-45°C.
3. PSYCHROPHILES growing at cold temperature with optimum at 15°C and range -5 to 20°C.

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B. FACTORS FOR GROWTH
Two other terms are also used with respect to microbial growth at refrigerated temperature and
survival of microorganisms to low heat treatment or pasteurization, because both methods are
widely used in the storage and processing of foods.
PSYCHROTROPHS grow at refrigerated T 0-5°C: Molds, yeasts and many G- bacteria from the
genera of Pseudomonas, Yersinia,… and G+ from genera Lactobacillus, Bacillus, Clostridium, and
Listeria.
THERMODURICS that survive pasteurization temperature include species from genera
Micrococcus, Bacillus, Clostridium and Enterococcus. Bacterial spores are also included in this
group.

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B. FACTORS FOR GROWTH
B.2. GASEOUS ATMOSPHERE:
On the basis of Oxygen requirements, bacteria can be divided into the following different
categories:
1. OBLIGATE AEROBES
2. OBLIGATE ANAEROBES
3. FACULTATIVE ANAEROBES
4. AEROTOLERANT ANAEROBES
5. CAPNOPHILES
6. MICROAEROPHILES

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MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
BINARY FISSION
An increase in number or mass of vegetative cells of bacteria, yeasts and
molds is used to reflect growth for microorganisms.
Bacteria reproduce by a process called binary fission, it is the proliferation or,
multiplication of bacteria.
The process includes several steps, such as DNA replication and separation,
invagination and septum formation of wall, and cell separation.
In this process, ONE cell asexually divides into TWO cells, each an essentially
true replica of the original cell.

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MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
On Solid agar media, the growth continues until there is a visible colony is produced.

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MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
GENERATION TIME OR DOUBLING TIME
The time that a single cell takes to divide into two is called
generation time.

In general, under optimum conditions of growth, bacteria have

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MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
GROWTH CURVE
The growth rate of a microbial population under a given conditions can be graphically
represented by counting cell numbers, enumerating CFUs, or measuring OD in a
spectrophotometer at a given wavelength of a cell suspension.
If the CFU values are enumerated at different times of growth and a growth curve is plotted
using log CFU, we obtain a plot similar to the following.

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 MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
1- LAG PHASE OR GROWTH PHASE
During this phase, no cell division takes place, and the population does not change.
Bacterial cells assimilate nutrients, synthetize enzymes, and increase in size in preparation for
the cell division.
This phase takes hours to days depending on microorganism and this is a period of intense
metabolic activity (enzymes synthesis).
Although the population remains unchanged because of change in size, both cell mass and OD
show some increase.

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MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
2- LOG PHASE OR LOGARITHMIC PHASE ALSO CALLED
EXPONENTIAL PHASE
The cell numbers start increasing, first slowly and then very rapidly.
The cellular reproduction is most active during this period.
Growth rate at this phase can be used to determine the generation time.
The number of bacteria doubles with each generation time depending on available resources
and other factors such as pH, Temperature, etc.

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MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
3- STATIONARY PHASE
The growth rate slows down until then population enters the stationary phase.
At this stage, because of nutrient shortage and accumulation of waste products, a few cells die
and a few cells multiply, keeping the living population stable.
In this phase, the number of bacteria dividing are equal to the number of bacteria dying making
the population number stable.

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MICROBIAL REPRODUCTION
OR GROWTH
4- DEATH PHASE OR DECLINE PHASE
At this phase, the rate of cell death is higher than the rate of cell multiplication since the
concentration of waste keeps on increasing and the nutrient supply continues decreasing.
Depending on the strain and conditions of the environment, after a long period of time (may
even be a few years) some cells may still remain viable. This information is important to
determine some microbiological criteria of food, especially in controlling spoilage and
pathogenic microorganisms in food.
The culture may die completely, or spores are produced if spore-forming bacteria are cultured.

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