Performance evaluation of the UVAPS: influence of physiological age of airborne bacteria and bacterial stress

This study evaluated the effect of bacterial physiology, such as physiological age and stress, on the performance of the ultraviolet aerodynamic particle sizer (UV-APS, model 3312, TSI Inc., St. Paul, MN). Intensity of the fluorescent signals was measured for three bacteria having various sensitivities to environmental stresses, Bacillus subtilus (spores and vegetative cells), Pseudomonas fluorescens, and Micrococcus luteus. The performance of the UVAPS was found to depend on the type of airborne bacteria. In addition, the fluorescence signals for stationary-phase bacteria were generally stronger than for their log-phase counterparts. These results indicated that bacterial injury due to environmental stresses has a strong influence on the measured fluorescence signals. This hypothesis was confirmed by obtaining a linear relationship between the percentage of fluorescent particles and the proportion of injured bacteria in the total population of cultivable bacteria in samples simultaneously collected with the AGI-30 impingers. This indicates that the amount of fluorophors (specifically NADH) within injured bacteria is below the UVAPS sensitivity level. The practical implications of these findings are discussed in the paper. The reported results contribute to broadening our understanding of the method and may assist in developing sampling strategies for the application of the UVAPS to various bioaerosol studies.