Use of Fat-Soluble Fluorescent Brighteners on Microorganisms.

We have applied a fat-soluble fluorescent aid to certain microorganisms. The aid, a stilbyl triazole compound, fluoresced more in the presence of certain strains of flocculating brewing yeasts than in the presence of nonflocculating types. The work suggested the possibility that flocculating yeasts may possess more surface lipids than the nonflocculating organisms. The performance of the compound on rapidly growing cell centers and bacterial spores is described, and the possible application of the technique to other areas of microbiology is outlined.