The following paper describes how pressurized CO2 under near-crit. and supercrit. conditions affects the survival of a range of yeast and bacterial cells. Kluyveromyces fragilis was found to be the most resistant of the test organisms studied with relative viabilities of >70% under near-crit. conditions. The growth history of the cells before treatment was the major factor affecting survivability with up to 100-fold higher viabilities for cells treated from the stationary phase of batch growth compared with those from actively growing cells in the early exponential phase. [on SciFinder (R)]