Role of free-living protozoa in the occurrence and survival of Vibrio cholerae O1 in aquatic ecosystem

Ferdous Nawar and M. Niamul Naser

Abstract
Cholera disease caused by bacteria Vibrio cholerae O1 and O139. Both afflict 3-5 million and cause 100,000-120,000 deaths worldwide each year. Although from the previous study we have information on the association of cholera bacteria with various zooplankton but little is known about what kinds of relationship exists between cholera bacterium with protozoa though they prefer to live more or less at a similar ecological niche. In the present study the role of free-living fresh water protozoa's in the persistence of V. cholerae O1 was assessed. The in situ association of V. cholerae O1 with protozoa showed the association of V. cholerae O1 with the fresh water shelled amoeba, Arcella but in the case of ciliates and flagellates large numbers of bacteria were detected from food vacuoles. The result also showed that vibrios form biofilms in Arcella culturing media and survived up to two months but the bacterial density declined to < 10 cells/mL water within six days in ciliate and flagellate culturing media. Besides in M-PCR results wbe, ctxA, rstR2 genes were positive for Arcella culturing microcosm later for up to 55 days but after four days all of the genes were negative for flagellate and ciliate culturing microcosm water. It indicates that tested amoeba, Arcella spp help in the survival of V. cholerae O1 in nature but ciliates and flagellates can graze upon large number of planktonic vibrios and control the abundance of cholera bacteria.

Keywords
Protozoa, Cholera, Ecology, Biofilm, Association.

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References
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