VARIATIONS IN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF E. COLI INDUCED BY QUATERNARY AMMONIUM COMPOUNDS

Abstract

Escherichia coli lost the ability to produce gas in liquid media and formed atypical small colony variants on desoxycholate agar, concurrent with induced resistance to quaternary ammonium compounds. Paralleling high resistance, the metallic sheen of colonies on confirmatory medium did not appear. The variant strains showed a decrease in growth rate, failed to reduce methylene blue, and were unable to ferment normal sugars. Thus, with induced resistance, variations occurred in Escherechia coli such as to reduce the value of coliform tests used to identify its presence.