MICROBIAL

ECOLOGY
Microb Ecol (2000) 39:6571
DOI: 10.1007/s002489900181
2000 Springer-Verlag New York Inc.

The Effect of Simulated Solar Radiation on Escherichia coli:

The Relative Roles of UV-B, UV-A, and Photosynthetically
Active Radiation
A. Muela, J.M. Garca-Bringas, I. Arana, I. Barcina
Departamento de Inmunologa, Microbiologa y Parasitologa, Facultad de Ciencias, Universidad del Pas
Vasco, E-48080 Bilbao, Spain
Received: 2 July 1999; Accepted: 14 October 1999; Online Publication: 29 March 2000

B S T R A C T

The relative role of components of solar radiation (UV-B, UV-A, and photosynthetically active
radiation) as well as the effect of simulated sunlight upon the physiological state of Escherichia coli
in fresh water were evaluated. Simulated solar radiation had a sublethal effect on E. coli populations
in a short-time exposure by provoking loss of culturability and the formation of viable but nonculturable cells. Prolonged exposure increased the damage to cells but cellular integrity was never
affected. However, important differences between the way the sunlight components acted were
detected. After photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) exposure, cells remained metabolically
active but only 10% of the cells were culturable. When cells were exposed to UV-A, the culturable
fraction was similar to the one obtained after PAR irradiation, although formation of viable but
nonculturable cells was not observed. For UV-B radiation short-time exposures (6 h) were enough
to provoke loss of culturability and a reduction in activity similar to that of simulated sunlight
exposed cells. The effect of simulated solar radiation on E. coli cells was mainly attributable to
shorter wavelengths, but a synergistic interaction of the UV-B, UV-A and PAR components was
detected.

Introduction
Recently, there has been renewed interest in the solar radiation reaching the surface of the earth. This interest has been
stimulated by predictions of significant increases in UV radiation as a result of an anthropogenic diminution of the

Correspondence to: I. Barcina; Fax: 34-94-4648500; E-mail: oipbaloi@

lg.ehu.es

ozone in the stratosphere [44]. Since the initial report of the

ozone hole in Antarctica, research has been focused on
marine ecosystems in the Southern Ocean. However, significant increases in UV-B radiation, of up to 1020% per decade, have been reported for both north and south temperate latitudes where freshwater ecosystems are abundant [9,
11, 25, 38].
In this context, the effect of solar radiation on enteric
bacteria has been found to be of particular importance.

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Among the various stresses to which enterobacteria are submitted when discharged into aquatic systems, solar radiation
seems to be the most important in reducing coliform numbers [2, 13, 15, 19, 37]. Many of the previous studies have
evaluated inactivation of fecal indicator organisms by sunlight by studying the loss of culturability. However, it is well
known that enterobacteria discharged into aquatic systems
can enter into a dormant state. They evolve towards a viable
but nonculturable stage in natural environments [35].
Therefore, measured counts may be affected by loss of culturability on laboratory media of viable cells.
Different aspects of the deleterious effect of visible light
on Escherichia coli immersed in aquatic environments have
been analyzed [3, 5, 6, 18]. A more fundamental question
arises, however, as to how organisms and ecosystems respond to UV radiation. There is some information available
on the influence of UV radiation on zooplankton and phytoplankton [12, 16, 24, 31, 36, 39], but the knowledge of the
impact of UV radiation on bacteria is rather scarce [20, 22,
30]. Moreover, all of those studies have mainly focused on
understanding the balance between the destructive effect of
UV radiation on cell physiology and the direct beneficial
effects of increased substrate availability on aquatic microbial ecology. However, the response of enteric bacteria to the
waveband of UV present in the global solar spectrum is still
unknown.
The aim of this work was to evaluate the effect of simulated solar radiation on E. coli in river water by determining
the relative role of UV-B (280 to 320 nm), UV-A (320400
nm), and photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) (>400
nm). The physiological state of the cells along with their
survival period in illuminated freshwater systems was analyzed by studying the changes of culturability and cellular
activity.

Materials and Methods

Water Samples and Bacterial Strain
Water samples were collected from the Butron River, a small
stream in the north of Spain. Water was sterilized by filtration
through 0.22 m-pore-size membrane filters (Millipore) and autoclaving (at 121C for 15 min). The dissolved organic carbon
concentration in the samples was measured with a Shimazdu 5000
TOC Analyzer, and its mean value was 6.89 mg C L-1.
E. coli strain CECT 471 was used in this study. The strain was
maintained at 4C on Nutrient Agar (NA; Oxoid).

Survival Experiments
The inocula for the survival experiments were prepared using the
technique described by Muela et al. [29]. Cells, grown in Tryptone

A. Muela et al.
Soy Broth (TSB; Oxoid) for 18 h at 37C with shaking at 120 rpm,
were harvested by centrifugation (3000 g for 15 min) and washed
three times in sterile saline solution (0.9% NaCl solution). Duran
glass flasks [26, 27] with sterile river water were inoculated with
cells at a final density of 108 cells ml-1. The inoculated flasks were
incubated at 25C with shaking at 120 rpm in an orbital incubator
with an illumination system.
It is not easy to simulate sunlight, and no standard UV irradiation system has been established for laboratory studies [24]. The
illumination system was selected according to Bjorn and Teramura
[8] and Kaiser and Herndl [23]. Thus, seven Philips fluorescent
lamps were used: five PAR TLD 30W/54 tubes, one UV-A TLK
40W/10R tube, and one UV-B TL 20W/12RS tube. Light intensity
was measured into flasks with a PMA 2100 radiometer (Solar Light
Co., Inc., Philadelphia) connected to three different broad-band
sensors (PAR: 400 to 700 nm; UV-A: 320 to 400 nm; UV-B: 280 to
320 nm). Our experimental treatments involved exposure to 10 W
m-2 of PAR, 6 W m-2 of UV-A, and 0.1 W m-2 of UV-B. Natural
sunlight values of 53 W m-2 of PAR, 16 W m-2 of UV-A, and 0.02
W m-2 of UV-B were measured on a sunny day at our latitude
(4222N, 251W).
Experiments were repeated at least three times and triplicate
samples were periodically collected for bacterial counts and glucose
uptake ability. The coefficients of variation between replicate
samples were less than 12%.

Bacterial Counts
Total number of cells (TDC) was directly estimated by epifluorescence microscopy using the standard acridine orange direct procedure of Hobbie et al. [21]. Formaldehyde fixed samples (2% final
concentration) were stained with acridine orange (0.01% final concentration) for 2 min and filtered onto 0.22 m-pore-size black
polycarbonate filters (Millipore). The total number of bacteria was
estimated by counting a minimum of 30 fields. At the same time,
the lengths of at least 200 cells were measured to allow estimation
of the mean size of the cells during the survival period.
Direct viable counts (DVC) were performed essentially as described by Barcina et al. [4]. Samples were inoculated in vials containing 20% TSB and 0.01 g/ml of ciprofloxacin and incubated for
6 h at 37C in the dark. Finally, samples were processed as for TDC.
The length of all the cells presented in at least 30 fields was measured. The number of viable bacteria was estimated by counting the
cells which increased in length with respect to the mean value
obtained in the TDC assay. Length values outside the 99% upper
confidence limit were taken into account.
The number of cells with active electron transport system
(CTC) was directly enumerated using epifluorescence microscopy
as described by Rodrguez et al. [34]. Samples of 108 cells ml-1 were
inoculated in vials containing 2% TSB and 1.35 mg ml-1 of
5-cyano-2,3-ditolyl tetrazolium chloride (CTC; Polysciences). After
3 h at 37C in the dark, samples were stained with 4,6-amidino2-phenylindiole (DAPI; Sigma) (2 g/ml final concentration) for 10
min.
Colony forming units counts (CFU) were performed by the

Effect of Simulated Solar Radiation on E. coli

Fig. 1. Changes in bacterial population size and heterotrophic

bacterial activity during simulated sunlight exposure. (open triangle), total number of cells (TDC); (square), number of cells able
to elongate (DVC); (open square), number of cells with active
electron transport system (CTC); (circle), number of culturable
cells on TSA; (open circle), number of culturable cells on EMB;
(triangle), glucose uptake rate. (inverted triangle), values below the
detection limit.
spread plate method on Tryptone Soy Agar (TSA; Oxoid) and on
Eosin Methylene Blue Agar (EMB; Oxoid). Plates were incubated
for 24 h at 37C.

Glucose Uptake
The glucose uptake rate was estimated as described by Muela et al.
[29]. Samples of 5 ml were incubated with [U-14C]glucose (230 to
350 mCi mM-1; Amersham) at a final concentration of 250 g L-1
and cold glucose (Merck) at a final concentration of 125 mg L-1.
These concentrations were chosen as a result of previous studies
[29] in which we had used the kinetic approach method as described by Wright and Hobbie [42, 43]. Assimilated and respired
fractions were defined as described by Wright and Burnison [41]
and the total glucose uptake was measured as the sum of assimilated and respired fractions.

Results
As the results obtained in repeated experiments were similar,
this paper presents a single representative study. The results

67

Fig. 2. Changes in bacterial population size and heterotrophic

bacterial activity during artificial UV-B irradiation. (open triangle),
total number of cells (TDC); (square), number of cells able to
elongate (DVC); (open square), number of cells with active electron transport system (CTC); (circle), number of culturable cells
on TSA; (open circle), number of culturable cells on EMB; (triangle), glucose uptake rate. (inverted triangle), values below the
detection limit.

presented are reported as percentages, calculated by comparing the values at different times with respect to the value
at the start of the stress assay.
Under non-illuminated conditions, all the parameters
analyzed remained constant throughout the incubation time
(data non shown). After 6 h of exposure to simulated sunlight (Fig. 1) 93.3% of the bacteria from the control culture
remained with active electron transport systems, but only
6.5% of the cells were able to elongate. Similarly, only
0.005% of the cells were culturable on standard plate media.
After 24 h, nonculturable cells were detected and DVC and
CTC counts decreased to below the detection level. The ability of stressed cells to take up glucose was also tested. After
6 h, the uptake was 1% and 18 h later it remained at a value
of 0.01%. During the same period of time, culturable cells
were not detected.
UV-B-irradiated bacteria (Fig. 2) showed a similar reduc-

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A. Muela et al.

Fig. 3. Changes in bacterial population size and heterotrophic

bacterial activity during artificial PAR irradiation. (open triangle),
total number of cells (TDC); (square), number of cells able to
elongate (DVC); (open square), number of cells with active electron transport system (CTC); (circle), number of culturable cells
on TSA; (open circle), number of culturable cells on EMB; (triangle), glucose uptake rate.

Fig. 4. Changes in bacterial population size and heterotrophic

bacterial activity during artificial UV-A irradiation. (open triangle),
total number of cells (TDC); (square), number of cells able to
elongate (DVC); (open square), number of cells with active electron transport system (CTC); (circle), number of culturable cells
on TSA; (open circle), number of culturable cells on EMB; (triangle), glucose uptake rate.

tion in culturability and ability to elongate to that of simulated sunlight exposed cells. While the CTC counts remained
unaltered after 6 h, there was a 91.7% decline in the glucose
uptake, and only 2% of the cells were able to elongate or
grow on standard plate media. Similarly, there were nonculturable cells after 24 h, but the glucose uptake ability remained at a value of 0.2%.
However, under UV-B radiation the suppression of the
CTC reduction activity became less pronounced. While
2.7% of the 24 h UV-B irradiated bacteria were cells with
active electron transport systems, CTC reduction activity by
simulated solar radiation exposed cells could not be detected
after the same time period.
There were apparent differences when comparing simulated sunlight treatment with both PAR and UV-A treatments. PAR and UV-A inhibition was less pronounced and
differences in cell responses were also found.
After 24 h of PAR exposure (Fig. 3), there was a 91.9%

decrease in glucose uptake from the control. After the same

period, cells exhibited a 36.9% reduction in culturability on
selective medium and a 52.1% decline in their ability to
elongate. However, 97.7% of the 24 h PAR exposed cells
remained culturable on TSA. The difference between ability
to elongate and culturability became less with increased time
of radiation. After 48 h, the percentage of CFU and DVC
ranged from 1.1% to 3.9% of the values displayed by the
control cells. At this period, 51.2% of the cells still retained
CTC reduction activity.
After 24 h of UV-A exposure (Fig. 4), the ability of irradiated cells to take up glucose was 7.9% of that of the control. While 60.3% of the cells remained culturable on TSA
and 45.7% were able to elongate, during the same period
only 6.3% of the bacteria were culturable on selective medium. The CTC counts were unaltered after 24 h of UV-A
exposure. The difference in the cell counts became less pronounced with increased time of UV-A irradiation. After 48

Effect of Simulated Solar Radiation on E. coli

h, only 0.79% of the cells from the control were culturable

on EMB and 6.2% were bacteria with CTC reduction activity.

Discussion
The results presented clearly show the deleterious effect of
simulated solar radiation upon enteric bacteria released into
freshwater systems. The most harmful effect is found when
the bacteria behavior is analyzed according to the culturability pattern. This effect of sunlight on culturability has been
reported by numerous authors in both fresh and sea water
[14, 17, 19, 28]. More recently, Caro et al. [10], working with
Salmonella typhimurium suspended in artificial seawater at
densities of 107 cells ml-1, found that all of the cells lost their
culturability after 3 hours of solar radiation exposure.
It is well known that microorganisms can enter a viable
but nonculturable state, and therefore the loss of culturability of an organism should not be equated with its death [7,
32, 35]. Differences between the decay rates, estimated by
the four enumeration methods, were found during the first
hours of exposure. The loss of culturability would only mean
that the organism is damaged. However, both the respiratory
chain activity and the morphological integrity remain almost
unchanged. The damage is aggravated by prolonging the
exposure period. The number of cells with active electron
transport systems seems to shift downward but the cellular
integrity is unaffected. At this point, and although culturable
cells were not detected, the population retains a remarkable
ability to take up substrates. Whether this activity corresponds to a few active cells or a total population of slowly
metabolizing cells remains as a difficult question to be answered.
The results reported herein are compatible with the findings of other researchers. Davies and Evison [14], working
with E. coli and Salmonella spp. exposed to natural sunlight,
found that direct counts by the acridine direct viable count
method decreased much more slowly than the culturable
counts in seawater, but were comparable with culturable
counts in freshwater in natural sunlight. Likewise, Pommepuy et al. [33] demonstrated that an enterotoxigenic
strain of E. coli entered a viable but nonculturable state,
although the cells retained the ability to produce enterotoxin
after exposure to natural sunlight in an estuary. However, in
those studies, the relative role of components of solar radiation (PAR, UV-A, and UV-B) was not analyzed.
According to the results reported, the disappearance of

69

enteric bacteria is expected to take place quickly in an

aquatic system. However, it is important to take into consideration the difficulties in simulating natural sunlight in
the laboratory due, among other reasons, to the great variation of natural radiation present in the water column. These
fluctuations are due to changes in several atmospheric factors, such as the solar zenith angle, atmospheric aerosols, or
the cloud cover density in the water column. Moreover, the
absorption and scattering of light by dissolved and particulate substances must also be taken into account when working with aquatic systems. In this sense it should be pointed
out that the particulate organic matter had been removed in
our microcosms. Besides, all the water samples assayed were
colorless and did not present absorption peaks in the emission spectrum of the fluorescent lamps used. Regarding
these considerations, when evaluating the role of sunlight in
the survival of the enteric bacteria presented in natural freshwater systems, a weaker response could be expected. Regardless, all radiations assayed have a sublethal effect on E. coli
populations. The main effect is the slowing down of metabolic functions that mainly affect the colony-forming capability. In this sense, we agree with Pommepuy et al. [33],
who noticed that the die-off ascribed to natural sunlight in
seawater was more appropriately viewed as inducing the viable but nonculturable state in many, if not all, cells.
When the population was subjected to illumination conditions where the emission spectrum was limited, important
differences among ways the three sunlight components act
were detected.
Not only did cells exposed to PAR retain morphological
integrity, but the bulk of the population remained as cells
with active electron transport systems after long exposures.
However, an important fraction of the population was injured, and this was manifested in the growth ability of the
cells. Probably, the inability to grow was due to problems
with the substrate uptake. Davies and Evison [14] also reported that direct viable counts and culturable counts decreased at a similar rate in visible light. They concluded that
the transition of enteric bacteria toward a viable but nonculturable form when exposed to natural sunlight is mainly
due to the UV component. However, the CTC reduction
results reported herein indicated the formation of metabolically active nonculturable bacteria when the population was
exposed to PAR, but to a lesser extent than when it was
exposed to simulated sunlight.
The response of E. coli to UV-A and to PAR radiation was
similar. In both cases the whole of the population retained
morphological integrity, the fraction of affected cells was

70

similar, and long-term exposures were necessary before the

effects became evident. However, the lack of formation of
viable but nonculturable cells under UV-A exposure should
be highlighted. At the end of UV-A exposure all bacteria
with active electron transport systems were able to elongate
and divide. These different responses reveal different targets
for the two spectra or more harmful injuries after UV-A
irradiation.
In contrast, when cells were exposed to UV-B radiation,
short-time exposures (within the first 24 hours of irradiation) were enough for the effects to become evident. Shorter
wavelengths, mainly the UV-B component, were the most
important in the elimination of enteric bacteria from the
aquatic systems. Moreover, the interaction of the three components of the suns spectrum did not have an additive but
rather a synergistic effect.
These results contrast with the ones reported earlier for
natural aquatic environments. Solic and Krstulovic [37], on
analyzing the survival of fecal coliforms in both glass bottles
and polyethylene bags, noticed that the visible, rather than
the ultraviolet, light spectrum of sunlight was primarily responsible for the bactericidal effect in seawater. DaviesColley et al. [15], by comparing the depth profiles of the
inactivation coefficients and the spectral irradiance of selected wavelengths, found that inactivation of enterococci
and fecal coliforms by UV-B radiation was of minor importance when compared to UV-A and visible radiation in sunlight because the shorter wavelength (290320 nm) penetrated a much shorter distance into seawater. The reason
for these different findings could be the previously mentioned characteristics concerning particulate and dissolved
organic carbon in our microcosms. The ability of particulate
and dissolved organic carbon to absorb light seems to be
wavelength dependent, being more efficient in shorter than
in longer wavelengths. The ability of dissolved organic matter to inhibit the penetration of the shorter sunlight wavelengths has been known for a long time and incorporated
into models of light penetration in water. Davies and Evison
[14] reported that humic acids enhanced the survival of E.
coli in water exposed to the sun; they attributed this response
to the ability of humic acids to absorb light in the solar UV
spectrum. When evaluating the role of sunlight in the survival of the enteric bacteria present in natural freshwater
systems, one can expect the organic matter amount to have
a great impact. However, according to Williamson [40], it
should be taken also into consideration that streams and
rivers, such as Butron river, are much shallower than other

A. Muela et al.

aquatic systems and thus, also potentially vulnerable to damage by UV-B radiation.

Acknowledgments
This work was supported by a predoctoral grant to J. M.
Garca-Bringas from the Basque Government and the research projects UPV 093.310-EB221/95 from the Basque
Country University.

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