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Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2006, p. 5974-5981, Vol. 72, No. 9
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.03075-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Survival of Environmental Mycobacteria in Acanthamoeba polyphaga

Toïdi Adékambi,1 Skandar Ben Salah,1,2 Mohamed Khlif,1,2 Didier Raoult,1 and Michel Drancourt1*

Assistance Publique-Hôpitaux de Marseille Timone, Fédération de Microbiologie Clinique and Unité des Rickettsies, CNRS UMR 6020 IFR 48, Faculté de Médecine, Université de la Méditerranée, Marseille, France,1 Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, CHU Habib Bourguiba, Faculté de Médecine, Sfax, Tunisia2

Received 30 December 2005/ Accepted 16 June 2006

Free-living amoebae in water are hosts to many bacterial species living in such an environment. Such an association enables bacteria to select virulence factors and survive in adverse conditions. Waterborne mycobacteria (WBM) are important sources of community- and hospital-acquired outbreaks of nontuberculosis mycobacterial infections. However, the interactions between WBM and free-living amoebae in water have been demonstrated for only few Mycobacterium spp. We investigated the ability of a number (n = 26) of Mycobacterium spp. to survive in the trophozoites and cysts of Acanthamoeba polyphaga. All the species tested entered the trophozoites of A. polyphaga and survived at this location over a period of 5 days. Moreover, all Mycobacterium spp. survived inside cysts for a period of 15 days. Intracellular Mycobacterium spp. within amoeba cysts survived when exposed to free chlorine (15 mg/liter) for 24 h. These data document the interactions between free-living amoebae and the majority of waterborne Mycobacterium spp. Further studies are required to examine the effects of various germicidal agents on the survival of WBM in an aquatic environment.

* Corresponding author. Mailing address: Unité des Rickettsies, Faculté de Médecine, 27, Boulevard Jean Moulin, 13385 Marseille Cedex 05, France. Phone: (33) 04.91.32.43.75. Fax: (33) 04.91.38.77.72. E-mail: Michel.Drancourt{at}medecine.univ-mrs.fr.

Applied and Environmental Microbiology, September 2006, p. 5974-5981, Vol. 72, No. 9
0099-2240/06/$08.00+0     doi:10.1128/AEM.03075-05
Copyright © 2006, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.



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