Abstract

The adhesion of spores of 3 Bacillus species with distinctive morphologies to stainless steel and borosilicate glass was studied using the fluid dynamic gauging technique. Marked differences were observed between different species of spores, and also between spores of the same species prepared under different sporulation conditions. Spores of the food‐borne pathogen B. cereus were demonstrated to be capable of withstanding shear stresses greater than 1500 Pa when adhered to stainless steel, in contrast to spores of Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus megaterium, which detached in response to lower shear stress. An extended DLVO model was shown to be capable of predicting the relative differences in spore adhesion between spores of different species and different culture conditions, but did not predict absolute values of force of adhesion well. Applying the model to germinating spores showed a significant reduction in adhesion force shortly after triggering germination, indicating a potential strategy to achieve enhanced removal of spores from surfaces in response to shear stress, such as during cleaning‐in‐place procedures.Practical ApplicationSpore‐forming bacteria are a concern to the food industry because they have the potential to cause food‐borne illness and product spoilage, while being strongly adhesive to processing surfaces and resistant to cleaning‐in‐place procedures. This work is of significance to the food processors and manufacturers because it offers insight to the properties of spore adhesion and identifies a potential strategy to facilitate the removal of spores during cleaning procedures.

Highlights

  • Bacterial endospores are formed by members of the Bacillales and Clostridiales orders upon sensing nutrient depletion during vegetative growth

  • Adhesion of potentially toxinogenic Bacillus cereus spores, for example, which presents a considerable hazard to the dairy industry given its prevalence in dairy products (Elaine and others 2011), has been studied in terms of the spore’s physical properties and external morphological features that is the presence of an outermost layer of the coat referred to as the exosporium, which may be decorated with various appendages

  • This paper introduces the fluid dynamic gauging (FDG) technique to measure the adhesion of various species of spores to stainless steel and to glass

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Summary

Introduction

Bacterial endospores (hereafter spores) are formed by members of the Bacillales and Clostridiales orders upon sensing nutrient depletion during vegetative growth. At the macro-molecular level, the significance of proteins that comprise the outermost hair-like nap of spores of this species has been the subject of study (Lequette and others 2011). These studies have frequently employed multiple strains of B. cereus, and as such, variation in the aforementioned physical and morphological features between strains make it difficult to determine the contribution of individual factors to spore adhesion

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