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Involvement of Minerals in Adherence of Legionella pneumophila to Surfaces

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Abstract

Legionella pneumophila is the causative agent of 90 % of Legionnaires’ disease cases. This bacterium lives naturally in fresh water and can colonize biofilms, which play an important role in the protection of Legionella against environmental stress factors. Relationship between the presence of minerals in water and Legionella adherence to surfaces is not well-known. In this study, we studied influence of minerals on bacterial adherence. For the first time, to our knowledge, this report shows that calcium and magnesium in a less extent, enhances the adherence of Legionella to surfaces compared to the bacteria behavior in distilled water. Treatment with proteinase K of live cells showed that surface proteins do not seem to play a crucial role in bacteria adherence to surfaces. Our results represent a first step in understanding effect of ions on Legionella adherence to surfaces. Such field of research could be helpful to better understand biofilm colonization by this bacterium to improve Legionella risk management in water networks.

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Acknowledgments

We thank the National Research Agency (ANR) for its participation in this project financing.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratoire Ecologie et Biologie des Interactions, UMR CNRS 7267, Equipe Microbiologie de l’Eau, B36, Université de Poitiers, 40 avenue du Recteur Pineau, 86022, Poitiers Cedex, France

    Mohamad Koubar, Marie-Hélène Rodier & Jacques Frère

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  1. Mohamad Koubar
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  2. Marie-Hélène Rodier
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  3. Jacques Frère
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Correspondence to Mohamad Koubar.

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Koubar, M., Rodier, MH. & Frère, J. Involvement of Minerals in Adherence of Legionella pneumophila to Surfaces. Curr Microbiol 66, 437–442 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-012-0295-0

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00284-012-0295-0

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