Hi Matt,
what you said about the UV penetration in water is just the opposite i always
was told.
We perform UV mutations very often (as part of the practices for our students)
to show the viability reduction.. have you tried to do this kind of experiments
placing a water container between UV source and plates?. I guess the water can
acts as a UV shield, but never tried.
Sergio
Matt wrote:
> There are actually quite a lot just suspended in the water column -- a
> decent oceanic average is about a million per mL! It was generally thought
> to be quite low, because the assay used was the standard plating out to see
> how many CFUs form, but at least 90% of marine bacteria will not grow in
> culture. Since UV can penetrate quite well in water (very significant in a
> least the first few metres), UV radiation accounts for a significant amount
> of bacterial damage and mortality (parallel with UV induced viral lysis).
>> Interesting stuff!
>> Matt
> UBC Department of Biology
