Study on bacteriolytic process with quartz crystal impedance system

A new method for study of bacteriolytic process was proposed by using quartz crystal impedance system (QCIS). Micrococcus lysodeiteicus was dissolved due to the catalysis of lysozyme, which caused the viscosity and density of bacterial solution to decrease. Experiments examined the time courses of the variations of impedance response parameters for a quartz crystal. The effects of the amount of enzyme and the number of bacterial cells on the process were also discussed. Considering the above two influencing factors, we established an impedance response model reflecting the process. By fitting the motional resistance (R1) versus time curve toward the proposed model, the kinetic parameters related to the process were given. The proposed method obtained coincident results with the viscometry. The study showed that this method could provide real time and multidimensional response information about the bacteriolytic process.