ISSN 2736-1756
Advanced Journal of Microbiology Research ISSN 2241-9837 Vol. 13 (2), pp. 001-006, February, 2019. © International Scholars Journals
Full Length Research Paper
Outer membrane proteins and morphological alterations of Shigella spp. under starvation in seawater
Ali Ellafi*, Fethi Ben Abdallah, Rihab Lagha and Amina Bakhrouf
Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Monastir, Avenue Avicenne, Monastir 5019, Tunisia.
Accepted 04 January, 2019
Abstract
In this study, we incubated four strains of Shigella in seawater microcosms (at room temperature and at 4°C) for eight months and we studied the alteration of their morphologic and outer membranes proteins. The starved cells showed an evolution to the filterable minicells state capable to pass membrane pore size 0.45 µm. In addition, the atomic force micrographs showed a reduction of the cells size and an evolution to coccoid-shapes. Outer membrane proteins patterns of stressed bacteria did not changed too much and these modifications were manifested by the appearance of one new band.
Key words: Shigella, seawater, starvation, morphological, outer membrane proteins.