FOOD SCIENCE ›› 2010, Vol. 31 ›› Issue (11): 11-14.doi: 10.7506/spkx1002-6630-201011003

• Basic Research • Previous Articles     Next Articles

Sterilization Mechanism of High-pressure Carbon Dioxide-caused Acidification

ZHOU Xian-han1 SONG Jun-hua2 ZENG Qing-mei1 ZHANG An1 CHENG Li-mei1 HU Xing-jun1 ZOU Xu-peng1   

  1. 1.School of Biotechnology and Food Engineering, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
    2.Engineering Research Center of Bio-process, Ministry of Education, Hefei University of Technology, Hefei 230009, China
  • Received:2009-10-23 Online:2010-06-01 Published:2010-12-29
  • Contact: SONG Jun-hua E-mail:huasongjun@126.com

Abstract:

The sterilization mechanism of high-pressure carbon dioxide-caused acidification was studied using a wild-type strain of Escherichia coli and two mutant strains derived from it with low activity of P-ATPase or F-ATPase. The results showed that high-pressure carbon dioxide under the identical condition exhibited better lethal effect on both the mutant strains than on the wild-type strain. Meanwhile, a remarkable effect of H+-ATPase activity on sterilization was observed. Therefore, these investigations indicated that high-pressure carbon dioxide could result in intercellular acidification to cause bacterial death during sterilization.

Key words: high-pressure carbon dioxide, sterilization mechanism, P-ATPase, F-ATPase, Escherichia coli

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