SCLM was used to quantify biofilm development on the glass bottom of microscope dishes (WillCo Wells

BV, the Netherlands, diameter 40 mm, thickness of a glass bottom 0.16–0.19 mm). Bacterial strains were grown overnight in MMA, then 1 : 100 dilutions were prepared in the same medium and 3 mL aliquots of this cell suspension were placed in dishes and incubated at 25 °C. After a given incubation period the medium was removed and the biofilm, which had developed on the bottom of the dish, was washed three times with 10 mM MgSO4. A solution of acridine orange (10 μg mL−1 in 10 mM MgSO4) was then added to the dish. After 30 min incubation, the biofilm was rinsed twice with 10 mM MgSO4. SCLM was conducted using a Nikon Eclipse Ti (A1) microscope equipped with a × 60, 1.4 NA oil immersion http://www.selleckchem.com/products/r428.html phase-contrast lens. An argon laser with a maximum-emission line at 488 nm was used as the excitation source.

Horizontal optical thin sections were collected at 4.0-μm intervals from the outer surface of the biofilm to the bottom of the glass plate. These images were captured by nis-elements interactive software and three-dimensional reconstructions (3D) were created. The reciprocal effect of ompR mutation on invasin expression and motility in Y. enterocolitica identified in previous studies (Brzostek et al., 2007; Raczkowska et al., 2011) raised important questions about selleck products the physiological meaning Montelukast Sodium of these observations. To evaluate the influence of

the OmpR regulatory function, the ability to adhere to and invade human epithelial HEp-2 cells was examined using Y. enterocolitica ompR, flhDC and inv mutant strains. The three mutants varied in their motility as judged by swimming assays: the ompR mutant (strain AR4) and the flhDC mutant (strain DN1) were nonmotile, whereas the inv mutant (strain DC2) exhibited wild-type motility (Fig. 2). In order to separate the effects of the nonmotile phenotype and increased invasin expression in the ompR mutant strain on cellular adhesion–invasion, tissue culture assays were performed with and without centrifugation (see Materials and methods). The centrifugation step artificially brings bacteria into contact with host cells, which bypasses the need for flagellar motility. Cell culture assays performed with the centrifugation step showed that the adhesion abilities of the ompR strain AR4 were decreased compared with the wild-type strain Ye9 and the nonmotile flhDC mutant DN1 (Fig. 3a). The inv mutant DC2 exhibited the weakest adherence phenotype, confirming the role of invasin as a major adhesive-invasion factor in Y. enterocolitica (Pepe & Miller, 1993).