Impact of Protective Compounds on the Viability, Physiological State and Lipid Degradation of FreezeDried Pseudomonas Fluorescens BTP1 during Storage

The drying of bacteria remains a major alternative in order to keep them long term. After centrifugation, the bacterial pellet of Pseudomonas fluorescensBTP1 was divided in two fractions one with protecting compounds
(2% glycerol or 5% maltodextrine) and one without and freeze-dried. After freeze drying, powders were sealed in aluminium bag under vacuum and stored at 4 or 20°C. The parameters such as viability, the conductivity and the ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids were used to investigate the viability of freeze-dried powders during storage. For example cell concentration of powder with glycerol (PG) at CFU/g before storage is 4.109 and after 7 month 2.108 at 4°C and 3,5.107 at 20°C). The ratio of polyunsaturated fatty acids/saturated fatty acids decrease in function of time
(e.g. at 4°C the ratios of C18:3 and C18:2 by C16:0 decreases respectively of 0,013 to 0,001 and 0,05 to 0,03 after 60 days of storage). In the present study,
flow cytometric analysis was applied to evaluate the state in which the cells are at the end of storage time. We compared the survival results of bacteria obtained by plate count with the flow cytometric analysis results.