Abstract
S. pneumoniae, commonly known as pneumococcus, is a naturally competent Gram-positive bacterium and is the major cause of pneumonia in elderly and children in developing countries. This pathogen is associated with respiratory diseases affected by pollution. The objective of this work was determining the effect of ash and environmental dust from the burning of sugarcane on pneumococci bacterial transformation. The transformation capacity of the Pn360 pneumococci strain was performed using the assays of DNA donor of mutant for luxS gene. Thus, the transformation tests were performed in contact with dust collected in the southwestern region of Brazil (important region where burning of sugar cane is present in the agriculture). The use of degradative practices in the sugar cane agriculture in Brazil was involved in the transformation capacity of the S. pneumoniae. This phenomenon includes important consequences for public health concerning to resistance acquisition and new virulence factors of this important infection. In conclusion, we obtained important results concerning the action of environmental pollution in Streptococcus pneumoniae transformation, increasing the DNA acquisition for this pathogen.
Highlights
The relationship between high rates of exposure to the smoke from the burning of biomass with the incidence of respiratory diseases was described by several authors in several places around the world (Arbex et al, 2007)
We collected the environmental dust in the Americana city in southwest region in Brazil (22°44’21’’S, 47°19’53’’W) and submitted it to the same test in pneumococci transformation
The results showed an increase of the pneumococci transformation in comparison with the control without environmental dust
Summary
The relationship between high rates of exposure to the smoke from the burning of biomass with the incidence of respiratory diseases was described by several authors in several places around the world (Arbex et al, 2007). S. pneumoniae, commonly known as pneumococcus, is a naturally competent gram-negative bacterium and is the major cause of pneumonia in elderly and accounts for about 5 million deaths of children per year in developing countries (Asturias et al, 2003; Duke, 2005; Zaidi et al, 2009). In these countries, the rate of pneumococcal infections in children up to six years of age is three to eight times higher than in Western European and North American countries
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