Survival of Environmental Mycobacteria in Acanthamoeba polyphaga
Authors: Didier Raoult
Michel Drancourt
Skandar Ben Salah
Toïdi Adékambi
Mohamed Khlif
Journal: Applied and Environmental Microbiology (2006)
Discipline: BIOLOGY & BIOCHEMISTRY
Keywords: Free-living amoebae; waterborne mycobacteria; Mycobacterium spp.; Acanthamoeba polyphaga; survival
Affiliations: Assistance Publique-Hï¿½pitaux de Marseille Timone, Fï¿½dï¿½ration de Microbiologie Clinique and Unitï¿½ des Rickettsies, CNRS UMR 6020 IFR 48, Facultï¿½ de Mï¿½decine, Universitï¿½ de la Mï¿½diterranï¿½e, Marseille, France, 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, Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, CHU Habib Bourguiba, Faculté de Médecine, Sfax, Tunisia

Abstract:  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. 

Retracted: No

PubPeer comments:
 Figure 4C *Areas in the same photo look more similar than expected ![file] , 
 Figure 2B * Green boxes: The Mycobacterium massiliense photo appears to look partially similar to a Mycobacterium massiliense photo in Figure 1A in an older paper by the same authors, i.e. Tou00efdi Adu00e9kambi et al., Journal of Clinical Microbiology (2004), DOI: 10.1128 JCM.42.12.5493-5501.2004. The 2004 photo also overlaps with Figure 3A from this paper (not shown). The experiments in the two papers appear slightly different. The JCM 2004 paper describes inoculating the amoebae with the sputum sample of a patient. This AEM 2006 paper describes that the amoebae were inoculated with bacterial strains. The M. massiliense strain appears to be the same isolate as the one described in the JCM 2004 paper, but it is not quite the same to inoculate amoebae with patient sputum vs. isolated strains. In addition, the M. massiliense strain is described in Table 1 as derived from bronchoalveolar fluid, while the 2004 photo was obtained from incubating the amoebae with sputum. ![file] , 
 An update for Figure 4C after a Twitter user found an additional potential repetitive area: ![file] , 
 Amoeba C is a regular guest on Fox News. ![file] ,