Detection of induced beta-galactosidase activity in individual non-culturable cells of pathogenic bacteria by quantitative cytological assay.

One Escherichia coli and two F' lac+ Salmonella strains were carbon and nitrogen stressed at 37 degrees C over 35 days in the presence or absence of chloramphenicol; the number, activity and culturability of cells in the resultant populations were studied. Active cells were enumerated by fluorescence microscopy after treatment with the lac inducer IPTG and cytological assay for beta-galactosidase. In all experiments, active and total cell counts remained within a three-fold range of each other and their initial values, while culturability fell by > 10(8)-fold and 10(3)-fold in chloramphenicol-treated and untreated preparations, respectively. Quantitative image analysis revealed different distributions of cell-specific fluorescence and indicated a progressive decline in the levels of induced enzyme activity in both E. coli and Salmonella enteritidis. It was concluded that the non-culturable cells studied retained inducible enzyme activity and that this activity did not result from a starvation-induced programme of gene expression. Whether or not such active but non-culturable cells are viable, they are clearly responsive and have the potential to influence their environment. The assay described can be applied to heterogeneous populations and environments and shows considerable potential for the study of gene expression at the single cell level.