Effects of Electrolytes on Attachment of Aquatic Bacteria to Solid Surfaces

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The influence of electrolytes on the adhesion to surfaces by two freshwater bacteria (Pseudomonas fluorescens, Chromobacterium sp.), a marine bacterium (Pseudomonas sp. NCMB 2021), and eight estuarine isolates was investigated with interference reflection microscopy (IRM). IRM is a light microscope technique which allows evaluation of changes in bacterium-substratum separation distance within a range of 0 to ca. 100 nm by changes in image darkness and brightness. The addition of calcium chloride (5 mM) or lanthanum chloride (75 μM or 125 μM) to suspensions of the freshwater bacteria produced changes in the image consistent with a reduction in cellsurface separation distance. However, the addition of calcium chloride to suspensions of the estuarine or marine bacteria caused little or no change in image. As the addition of electrolytes would be expected to facilitate adhesion by reducing electrostatic repulsion between the two surfaces, the results suggest that electrostatic repulsion may be of little consequence to bacterial adhesion in saline environments.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: