IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/plo/pone00/0029031.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Effect of Low Temperature on Growth and Ultra-Structure of Staphylococcus spp

Author

Listed:
  • Laura A Onyango
  • R Hugh Dunstan
  • Johan Gottfries
  • Christof von Eiff
  • Timothy K Roberts

Abstract

The effect of temperature fluctuation is an important factor in bacterial growth especially for pathogens such as the staphylococci that have to remain viable during potentially harsh and prolonged transfer conditions between hosts. The aim of this study was to investigate the response of S. aureus, S. epidermidis, and S. lugdunensis when exposed to low temperature (4°C) for prolonged periods, and how this factor affected their subsequent growth, colony morphology, cellular ultra-structure, and amino acid composition in the non-cytoplasmic hydrolysate fraction. Clinical isolates were grown under optimal conditions and then subjected to 4°C conditions for a period of 8 wks. Cold-stressed and reference control samples were assessed under transmission electron microscopy (TEM) to identify potential ultra-structural changes. To determine changes in amino acid composition, cells were fractured to remove the lipid and cytoplasmic components and the remaining structural components were hydrolysed. Amino acid profiles for the hydrolysis fraction were then analysed for changes by using principal component analysis (PCA). Exposure of the three staphylococci to prolonged low temperature stress resulted in the formation of increasing proportions of small colony variant (SCV) phenotypes. TEM revealed that SCV cells had significantly thicker and more diffuse cell-walls than their corresponding WT samples for both S. aureus and S. epidermidis, but the changes were not significant for S. lugdunensis. Substantial species-specific alterations in the amino acid composition of the structural hydrolysate fraction were also observed in the cold-treated cells. The data indicated that the staphylococci responded over prolonged periods of cold-stress treatment by transforming into SCV populations. The observed ultra-structural and amino acid changes were proposed to represent response mechanisms for staphylococcal survival amidst hostile conditions, thus maintaining the viability of the species until favourable conditions arise again.

Suggested Citation

  • Laura A Onyango & R Hugh Dunstan & Johan Gottfries & Christof von Eiff & Timothy K Roberts, 2012. "Effect of Low Temperature on Growth and Ultra-Structure of Staphylococcus spp," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 7(1), pages 1-10, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0029031
    DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0029031
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0029031
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article/file?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0029031&type=printable
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1371/journal.pone.0029031?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Mousa M Alreshidi & R Hugh Dunstan & Johan Gottfries & Margaret M Macdonald & Marcus J Crompton & Ching-Seng Ang & Nicholas A Williamson & Tim K Roberts, 2016. "Changes in the Cytoplasmic Composition of Amino Acids and Proteins Observed in Staphylococcus aureus during Growth under Variable Growth Conditions Representative of the Human Wound Site," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 11(7), pages 1-19, July.
    2. Emira Noumi & Abderrahmen Merghni & Mousa Alreshidi & Rosa Del Campo & Mohd Adnan & Ons Haddad & Vincenzo De Feo & Mejdi Snoussi, 2020. "Phenotypic and Genotypic Characterization with MALDI-TOF-MS Based Identification of Staphylococcus spp. Isolated from Mobile Phones with their Antibiotic Susceptibility, Biofilm Formation, and Adhesio," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(11), pages 1-17, May.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:plo:pone00:0029031. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    We have no bibliographic references for this item. You can help adding them by using this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: plosone (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.