Abstract

In this work, we incubated four Shigella strains for one month at room temperature and at 4°C. Their adhesion capacity to KB cells, biofilm formation on microplate and surface hydrophobicity of starved cells were investigated. Our results showed that the stressed cells exhibited a remarkable increase in their hydrophobicity from 19 to 34% and in their capacity to produce biofilm. Adherence assays to KB cells showed an increase in the number of adherent cells from 0.7 to 6.7% after one month of incubation in seawater. However, the percentage of invasion was decreased from 34 to 11% under stress condition.

Key words: Shigella, seawater, starvation, hydrophobicity, adhesion, invasion.