Dear Andrew Gumley:
In theory bacteria should run into osmotic problems if put into distilled
water. In practise I haven't seen much of this. When I placed Brucella abortus
in sterile distilled water years back (I can't remember why I would have done
this, I normally use 1% saline) they were unaffected over 5-10 minutes. On the
other hand, Vibrio parahaemolyticus, which thrives in seawater with 3% salt,
popped. Brucella,like plant pathogens such as Azotobacter, has a glucose
polymer in its periplasmic space to avoid such shocks.
Take care...John
