| 摘要 |
In the method for measuring cell counts or methane producing activity of Methanogens according the present invention, an extracted liquid is prepared by adding an addition solution for extracting a particular fluorescent substance inherent to Methanogens, for example, F420 exciting in the energy metabolism system of Methanogens in the object for examination and functioning as the electron carrier in the electron transport system or by heating the first object for examination. Since a particular fluorescent substance existing in the Methanogen cells in the first object for examination has been extracted out of the Methanogen cells, the intensity of fluorescence is increased upon measurement thereof. The particular fluorescent substance extracted from the inside to the outside of the Methanogen cells and water soluble substances already existing in the Methanogen cells are contained in the extracted and separated liquid obtained by applying solid-liquid separating procedures of removing solid particles greater than a predetermined grain size containing Methanogens from the extracted liquid. Then, the solid-liquid separating procedure is applied to the second object for examination containing the same ingredients as in the first object for examination and Methanogens, thereby obtaining a solid-liquid separated liquid containing water-soluble substance out of the cells prepared by removing solid particles greater than a predetermined particle size containing Methanogens. By applying an extracting procedure by the addition of an addition solution or heat to the solid-liquid separation, separated and extracted liquid is obtained. Since Methanogens have been previously removed from the separated and extracted liquid, by the solid-liquid separation, no substantial particular fluorescent substance is extracted if subsequent extraction is applied. Then, when an excitation light at a particular wavelength is irradiated to both of the extracted and separated liquid and the separated and extracted liquid, since fluorescent lights of particular wavelength regions are respectively radiated from both of the liquids, the intensity of the fluorescence in each of the particular wavelength region is measured. Then, the cell counts or methane producing activity of Methanogens in the object for examination prepared by sampling the first and second objects for examination are determined by performing predetermined data processing based on the measured intensity value of the fluorescence, since the measured intensity values of the fluorescence have a predetermined relationship with the amount of the particular fluorescent substance that has been present in Methanogen cells.
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