Measurement of ATP content in microbial cell under aerobic and anaerobic conditions

　ATP content in a unit mass of facultative anaerobes growing under aerobic, anaerobic, changing from aerobic to anaerobic and changing from anaerobic to aerobic conditions was measured. Irrespective of conditions, the ATP content showed a similar value in logarithmic growth phase, namely around 2g ATP・(kg cell)^-1. This suggests that under anaerobic condition as well as under aerobic condition ATP measurement can be used to determine the concentration of the viable microbial cells most of which are in the logarithmic growth phase.