Measurement of the growth of a floc forming bacterium Pseudomonas putida CP1

Pseudomonas putida CP1 formed clumps of cells when grown on mono-chlorophenols but not on phenol or glucose. An increase in cell numbers for the organism grown on mono-chlorophenols was accompanied by a decrease in the dry weight. The change in shape of the bacterium from rod shape to coccus shape coupled with a reduction in cell size when the organism was grown under nutritional stress was found. This result together with cell aggregation affected the measurement of growth parameters in the system by conventional methods (optical density measurements, dry weight measurements and the plate count technique). Monitoring growth of Pseudomonas putida CP1 by a direct microscopic count technique was found to be more representative than conventional methods including optical density measurements, dry weight measurements and the plate count technique when grown on phenolics.