Abstract
In several systems bacterial adhesion occurs despite a positive interfacial free energy of adhesion, ΔFadh; this implies that other interactions are involved. We hypothesize that the number of bacteria adhering at ΔFadh=0 represents their ability to adhere by other, i.e., non-ΔFadh-dependent interactions. Eight strains of oral streptococci were allowed to adhere to three solid substrata with different surface free energies in a flow cell system. Strain-specific linear relations were found between the numbers of bacteria adhering at saturation, nb,s, and ΔFadh. When for all strains the numbers of adhering bacteria at ΔFadh=0 were plotted versus the slopes, denoting the sensitivity to ΔFadh, a linear relationship (r=0.92) was observed. It is, therefore, concluded that one strain-specific factor influences both ΔFadh-dependent and non-ΔFadh-dependent adherence. The numerical value of this factor, together with a surface energetic analysis, predicts the number of streptococci that will adhere to a given nonbiological substratum.
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