The influence of collector and bacterial cell surface properties on the deposition of oral streptococci in a parallel plate flow cell

Abstract

Abstraet-The deposition of two strains of oral streptococci on collector surfaces with different surface free energies has been studied in a parallel plate flow cell at various buffer concentrations. One of the strains, Streptococcus salivarius HB, was characterized by the presence of proteinaceous surface appendages with lengths between 72 and 178 nm; whereas S. salivarius HB-C12, a spontaneous mutant of S. salivarius HB, was devoid of all surface appendages. Large differences were observed between the deposition rates of the two strains which were not predicted by theoretical calculations based on the convective diffusion equation using a DLVO-type potential function. This difference was attributed to the influence of the surface appendages of S. salivarius HB, which were absent on the mutant strain S. salivarius HB-C12. Furthermore, an additional attractive interaction, not accounted for in the DLVO theory, was needed in order to match the experimental deposition rates on the low surface free energy collector surfaces with theoretical predictions.

Keywords:

• Deposition: flow cell
• surface free energy
• bacterial cell surface