Determination of surface charge of some bacteria by colloid titration.

The surface charge of bacteria is always negative except below pH 2. The negative charge depends mainly upon phosphate and carboxyl groups. The charge of six kinds of bacteria was determined by colloid titration between pH 2 and 11. When there is amino group on the cell surface, it is positive as ammonium cation between pH 2 and 10, and it combines with the negative groups to neutralize the negative charge. In the presence of formalin, the colloid titration results show that the free amine is blocked by formalin, and the amino group can be estimated by the difference between the two titration results. Above pH 10, the titration results of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhi in the presence of formalin implied the existence of guanidyl group. The titration results of living bacterial suspensions were quite the same as those of heat-killed ones.