| The release of enteric pathogenic bacteria in aquatic environments poses the problem of the fate of these bacteria under the effects of environmental factors (solar radiation, salt concentration, temperature, nutrient level, pH, competition). Frequently, these bacterial cells, potentially pathogenic, enter into a non-culturable state on routine bacteriological plating media. However, the use of direct detection methods (DAPI stained cells) allows the visualization of these Viable but Non Culturable cells (VNC). But, beyond the characterization of the viability of the cells (electron transport activity, metabolic activity, membrane integrity, structure and/or quantity of DNA), what happens with the virulence of these cells? This problem was experimentally... |
