Improved synchronous light scattering method for measuring baker's yeast biomass using thickened suspensions.

Measuring yeast biomass is important in the processes of microbial fermentations. It has been demonstrated that synchronous light scattering (SLS) signals could be applied for the quantification of model bioparticles such as Saccharomyces cerevisiae. In this study, an improved synchronous light scattering method was developed for yeast biomass estimation. The settlement of yeast cells during SLS signals measuring process was studied, and hydrolysis anionic polyacrylamide was added into yeast suspensions to increase the stability of the cells in liquid environment. By simultaneously scanning both the excitation and emission monochromators of a common spectrofluorometer with same starting excitation and emission wavelength (namely, ∆λ = 0), the SLS intensity was found to be proportional to the yeast concentration in the range from 0 to 4.9 × 10(6) cell/mL (R (2) = 0.9907), the detection limit is 8.1 × 10(3) cell/mL. The developed method exhibited good stability and sensitivity in the recovery test and growth curve drawing process, demonstrating the potential of the method in practical application of biomass estimation.