[A rapid method for determining the viability of Escherichia coli cells subjected to the action of low temperatures].

When Escherichia coli cells are frozen at a low temperature, various damages appear in them, in particular, in the membranous apparatus. Only stable disorders in the barrier properties of the cytoplasmic membranes are of a critical importance for the cell viability. These disorders should be taken into account when express methods are developed for assaying the viability of bacterial cells. Critical structures (properties) are to be revealed by their analysis after varying the intensity (dose) of the main damaging factors. Provided that the critical feature of each cell has two states (damaged and intact) after the action of extreme factors, its quantitative change correlates in a linear mode with the number of viable cells in the population.