Poor taste of Salmonella

2002/07/01 Elhuyar Zientzia Iturria: Elhuyar aldizkaria

• Mikrobiologia

To combat the diseases that the bacterium Salmonella enteritidis causes in our digestive tract, in addition to the mechanisms of our immune system, the amoebas also influence. Amoebas are unicellular organisms that live in our digestive tract and feed on bacteria like Salmonella.

At the University of Utah they have observed that the amoebas have a quite important influence on the populations of Salmonella, so the bacteria have developed an anti-amoeba protection system that alter the composition of the external membrane so that they are not so attractive to the amoebas.

The scientists used in the experiment seven strains of Salmonella with different external membrane compositions. The amoebas ate 2.5 times faster than the average. Therefore, according to scientists, Salmonella bacteria choose an external membrane with the ‘worst flavor’ for amoebas to prevent them from eating.