Centro de Investigación en Alimentación y Desarrollo, Av. Río Conchos S/N, Parque Industrial, Cd. Cuauhtémoc, Chihuahua 31570, Mexico.
Department of Food Science, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, USA.
J Microbiol Methods. 2021 Jun;185:106234. doi: 10.1016/j.mimet.2021.106234. Epub 2021 May 7.
Bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity is a relevant property in determining the ability of bacteria to adhere to inert surfaces. This property has been measured using the microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon (MATH) test. Several reports in the literature establish the percentage of adhesion to hydrocarbons (PoAtH) value produced by the MATH test for a broad variety of bacteria. Discrepancies in PoAtH values reported for the same strain of a specific microorganism suggest that some method-induced variation may exist, as different research teams employ different versions of the assay. The objective of the present study was to compare the performance of different versions of the MATH test as reported in the literature, to quantify the magnitude of the method-induced variation on PoAtH values. The study demonstrated that PoAtH values are influenced twice as much by variations in the employed assay than by actual differences in cell surface composition or architecture. The two L. reuteri strains studied responded differently to changes in assay conditions showing 40 and 70% method-dependent variation for strain ATCC 53609 and 55730, respectively. These results highlight the need to properly standardize the MATH test to enable comparison of PoAtH values produced by independent research teams.
细菌细胞表面疏水性是决定细菌粘附惰性表面能力的一个相关特性。该特性可使用微生物对烃类的粘附（MATH）试验进行测量。文献中的多项报告确定了 MATH 试验产生的各种细菌对烃类的粘附百分率（PoAtH）值。对于特定微生物的同一菌株，报告的 PoAtH 值存在差异，这表明可能存在某些方法诱导的变异，因为不同的研究小组采用不同版本的测定方法。本研究的目的是比较文献中报道的不同版本的 MATH 试验的性能，以量化方法诱导的变异对 PoAtH 值的影响程度。研究表明，PoAtH 值受所用测定方法的变异影响是细胞表面组成或结构实际差异的两倍。研究中所研究的两种 L. reuteri 菌株对测定条件的变化反应不同，对于 ATCC 53609 和 55730 菌株，分别表现出 40%和 70%的方法依赖性变异。这些结果强调需要正确标准化 MATH 试验，以实现独立研究小组产生的 PoAtH 值的比较。
