National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS)
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PRINT ISSN : 2319-7692
Online ISSN : 2319-7706 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcmas@gmail.com / submit@ijcmas.com Editor-in-chief: Dr.M.Prakash Index Copernicus ICV 2018: 95.39 NAAS RATING 2020: 5.38 |
Cronobacter species are emerging foodborne pathogens that cause severe sepsis, meningitis, and necrotizing enterocolitis in neonates and infants. Many bacteria use phase variation such as smooth to rugose phenotype change to adapt and survive in stressful environments. In this study we developed two stable smooth and rugose pairs by sequentially streaking a single rugose or smooth colony of C. sakazakii on Trypticase Soy Agar at 37°C to understand the roles of the smooth and rugose phase change in Cronobacter. The rugose-positive strains produced significantly more biofilms and cell autoaggregation than their rugose-negative counterparts. More bacteria of rugose-positive C. sakazakii persisted for five months under desiccated growth environment than their smooth counterparts. Our study showed that C. sakazakii did not express curli, but possessed cellulose bcsABC genes in both rugose and smooth pairs. The data show that the rugose phenotype of Cronobacter allows for more biofilm formation and cell autoaggregation, and the rugose variants could survive much longer than the smooth counterparts in desiccated environment. These results suggest that the smooth to rugose phenotype change plays an important role in Cronobacter survival and persistence in harsh environments.
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