Continuous-flow system for large-scale ultraviolet irradiation of bacterial cells.

A quartz-flow-cell system for irradiation of large volumes of Escherichia coli cultures with ultraviolet light is described. With this system kilogram quantities of irradiated cells can be obtained for biochemical studies. Changes in respiration and in specific activities of superoxide dismutase and catalase, after an ultraviolet treatment that reduced viability of culture samples to 0.2%, were in good agreement with those for cultures irradiated (52J/m2) by a conventional small-scale method to produce the same reduction in viability.