, 2006). In our

study, we observed that this regulatory mechanism has a greater impact on B. cepacia than A. niger or a co-culture. Presumably, the reduced effect of this regulatory mechanism on the co-culture was because of the dominant presence of the fungus, A. niger. However, the correlation between the concentration of phosphate and the phosphatase activity was not significant (Table 2), possibly due to insufficient levels of phosphate achieved to mediate complete repression of the enzyme. Similar responses were obtained in media inoculated with Aspergillus sp PS-104 (Kang et al., 2008) and A. niger (Ogbo, 2010), wherein phosphatase activity initially increased and subsequently remained relatively constant during the remaining period of incubation. To conclude, co-culture of A. niger and B. cepacia Forskolin generated a greater magnitude of solubilized phosphate compared with single cultures. We hypothesize that this is because of synergy between the fungi and bacteria in the co-culture system, putatively

associated with the increased release of organic acids. Production of acids by the co-culture was larger than the sum of acid production by the individual cultures. During the 9 days of incubation, the increase in microbial biomass was accompanied by a considerable decrease GSK2118436 concentration in the concentration of glucose as well as the pH of the

culture medium. The enhanced ability of co-culture to solubilize phosphates may be of paramount importance in soils poor in levels of phosphate that are found in many regions of the world. “
“Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) are zoonotic pathogens transmitted to humans through contaminated water or bovine products. One of the strategies used by pathogenic bacteria to survive in aquatic environments is using free-living amoebae as hosts. Acanthamoeba castellanii is an amoeba known to host several waterborne pathogens. This study investigates the survival Thalidomide of EHEC with A. castellanii, which could contribute to its spread and transmission to humans. We used a gentamicin protection assay as well as fluorescence and electron microscopy to monitor the intra-amoebae survival of EHEC O157:H7 over 24 h. The results showed that EHEC were able to survive within A. castellanii and that this survival was reduced by Shiga toxins (Stx) produced by EHEC. A toxic effect mediated by Stx was demonstrated by amoebae mortality and LDH release during co-culture of EHEC and amoeba. This work describes the ability of EHEC to survive within A. castellanii, and this host-pathogen interaction is partially controlled by the Stx. Thus, this ubiquitous amoeba could represent an environmental niche for EHEC survival and transmission.