Search

Due to land uplift after the last ice age, previously stable Baltic Sea sulfidic sediments are becoming dry land. When these sediments are drained, the sulfide minerals are exposed to air and can release large amounts of metals and acid into the environment. This can cause severe ecological damage such as fish kills in rivers feeding the northern Baltic Sea. In this study, five sites were investigated for the occurrence of acid sulfate soils and their geochemistry and microbiology was identified. The pH and soil chemistry identified three of the areas as having classical acid sulfate soil characteristics and culture independent identification of 16S rRNA genes identified populations related to acidophilic bacteria capable of catalyzing sulfidic mineral dissolution, including species likely adapted to low temperature. These results were compared to an acid sulfate soil area that had been flooded for ten years and showed that the previously oxidized sulfidic materials had an increased pH compared to the unremediated oxidized layers. In addition, the microbiology of the flooded soil had changed such that alkalinity producing ferric and sulfate reducing reactions had likely occurred. This suggested that flooding of acid sulfate soils mitigates their environmental impact.

Phenotypic smooth cells of the fish pathogenic bacterium Flavobacterium psychrophilum have previously been reported to be more adhesive to polystyrene surfaces than corresponding rough cells. In this study, the adhesion ability of smooth and rough cells of F. psychrophilum to polystyrene surfaces was investigated in detail with a crystal violet staining method. By treating both polystyrene surfaces with fish mucus and carbohydrates and the bacterial cells with carbohydrates, the involvement of lectins in the adhesion process was investigated. Smooth cells showed significantly higher adhesion ability to untreated polystyrene surfaces compared with corresponding rough cells and increasing water hardness had an inhibitory effect on the adhesion. Treatment of polystyrene surfaces with D-glucose, D-galactose and fish mucus increased the adhesion ability of smooth cells to polystyrene. Furthermore, treatment of the smooth cells with D-glucose, D-galactose and sialic acid decreased the adhesion ability of the cells, indicating that the adhesion is likely mediated by complementary lectins on the surface of the cells. Sodium (meta)periodate treatment of smooth cells also decreased the adhesion ability to polystyrene, suggesting that the lectins, such as the dominating sialic acid-binding lectin, are probably localized in the extracellular polysaccharides surrounding the cells.

The cytotoxic activity of smooth and rough phenotypic cells of the fish pathogenic Gram-negative bacterium Flavobacterium psychrophilum to rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) head kidney macrophages was investigated in vitro. The cytotoxicity to macrophages was significantly higher for rough cells compared with the smooth cells. The cytotoxic activity increased for both cell types with increasing temperature and the cells retained their cytotoxic nature after metabolical inactivation by heat, suggesting a cell-bound cytotoxic mechanism. The cytotoxicity was significantly reduced in both cell types after treatment with sodium (meta)periodate, indicating that the major bacterial structure involved in the cytotoxicity is of carbohydrate nature. Trypsin treatment further reduced the cytotoxicity in smooth cells, while sialic acid treatment reduced the cytotoxicity in rough cells, suggesting different lysing mechanisms for the two phenotypic variants. The results from the present study therefore suggest that the cytotoxic activity of F. psychrophilum to rainbow trout macrophages in vitro is stronger expressed in the rough phenotype and that it is opsonin-independent and initiated by binding of bacterial surface carbohydrates to lectins on the surface of the macrophages. How the lysis of the macrophages is executed is still unclear but it is suggested to function by different mechanisms in the smooth and the rough cells. The migration of rainbow trout macrophages toward smooth and rough cells of F. psychrophilum was further investigated. The results show that the macrophages were able to recognize both cell types, but the migration rate did not differ between the two phenotypes.

Four 'smooth' and 4 'rough' colony phenotypes of the Gram-negative fish pathogen Flavobacterium psychrophilum isolated from rainbow trout Oncorhynchus mykiss were characterized using biochemical, physiological, molecular and virulence tests to better understand the pathogenesis of the bacterium. Biochemically, the 2 cell types did not react significantly differently. Physiologically, the 2 phenotypes had distinct characteristics, and, when grown in broth, the smooth cells were found to be autoagglutinating and able to switch into the non-agglutinating rough phenotype. The rough cells did not switch into the smooth phenotype under any growth conditions tested, indicating that the phase variation from the smooth to rough phenotype is irreversible or that the conditions for the reversible switch are still to be found. Smooth cells were hydrophobic and more adhesive compared to the hydrophilic rough cells, suggesting that the phase variation most probably involves one or several surface structures other than outer membrane proteins and lipopolysaccharides that were found to be similar in both types. Analysis of extracellular products produced by the 2 cell types indicated furthermore that a difference in enzymatic activities could exist. Both cell types were virulent for rainbow trout in an intramuscular challenge; thus, the distinct physiological characteristics of the phenotypes do not seem to be directly associated with virulence, when the body surface of the fish is disregarded. The results suggest that phase variation occurs in F. psychrophilum, but that the importance of the 2 phenotypes for the pathogenesis of the bacterium has still to be investigated.

The hemolytic activity of cells of smooth and rough phenotypic variants of the Gram-negative fish pathogen Flavobacterium psychrophilum was investigated in two different assays, a microplate and an agarose hemolysis assay, using rainbow trout erythrocytes. The smooth cells showed a high and the rough cells a negligible, concentration dependent, hemolytic activity in the microplate assay. Both smooth and rough cells showed a rather weak hemolytic activity, with two distinct hemolytic patterns, in the agarose assay. The hemolytic activity of the cells was not regulated by iron availability and cell-free extracellular products did not show any hemolytic activity. The smooth cells, in contrast to the rough cells, showed a high ability to agglutinate erythrocytes and both hemagglutination and hemolytic activity was impaired by treatment of the cells with sialic acid. The hemolytic activity was furthermore reduced after proteolytic and heat treatment of the cells. The results from the present study suggest that the hemolytic activity in F. psychrophilum is highly expressed in the smooth phenotype, and that it is a contact-dependent and two-step mechanism that is initiated by the binding of the bacterial cells to the erythrocytes through sialic acid-binding lectins and then executed by thermolabile proteinaceous hemolysins.