Final Technical Report for Grant N00014-90-5-1663 from 1 December 1989 to 31 May 1991 (Harvard Univ.).

• Main Author: Mitchell, Ralph
• Other Authors: HARVARD UNIV CAMBRIDGE MA DIV OF APPLIED SCIENCES
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: 1991
• Subjects: Microbiology; Biological Oceanography; *BACTERIA; *ADHESION; *MARINE BIOLOGY; HEXADECANE; *BACTERIAL ADHESION; *MARINE BACTERIA; SUBSTRATA; Antarctic; Antarc*
• Online Access: http://www.dtic.mil/docs/citations/ADA249750; http://oai.dtic.mil/oai/oai?&verb=getRecord&metadataPrefix=html&identifier=ADA249750

The results obtained during the course of this project on substratum- microorganism interactions and the adhesion of marine bacteria are summarized as follows: (1) A series of field experiments indicated that there are substratum influences on the attachment of bacteria in Antarctic marine waters. Detachment of bacteria from the substrata also appeared to occur. (2) Some bacteria, when in suspension, were demonstrated to have different cell surface hydrophobicities using the adhesion to hexadecane technique. However, by measuring contact angles of both air bubbles and hexadecane droplets of resulting films of these same bacteria, the film wettability was determined to be the same; (3) Our observations of a copiotrophic marine bacterium under conditions of nutrient deprivation showed that it underwent fragmentation (i.e., cell division without growth) and formed dwarf cells with an increase in cell surface hydrophobicity; Protein synthesis continues in cells undergoing a starvation response; and Conjugation between enteric bacteria and marine bacteria resulted in the insertion of a transposon (mini-Mu) into the genome of the marine bacteria.