Effect of Sanitizers and Glucose on Clostridium perfringens Biofilm Formation and Growth

Abstract

Clostridium perfringens enterotoxigenic strain is one of the responsible of food poisoning; this is caused by cpe enterotoxin. Cpe is produced during sporulation, a resistance mechanism. It is described that C. perfringens can form biofilm under stressed environments and this depends of carbohydrates availability. The aim of this work was to evaluate the ability of enteroxigenic (E+) and no enterotoxigenic (E-) C. perfringens strains to form biofilm at different concentrations of carbon source and the inhibitory effect of various Poli P over biofilm formation and the expression of cpe and ccpa genes. Our results indicate that E+ C. perfringens biofilm reach the more complex structure with high glucose concentrations. Even more current sanitizers used in food industry like SAPP and TSPP, showed to stimulate biofilm formation and to inhibit the growth of planktonic cells. On the other hand, morphological changes were observed during biofilm formation under low glucose concentration and in presence of sanitizers. We propose that the change from a bacillary to coccoid form is related to a resistance to stressed environments. Finally the cpe expression is not related to biofilm formation.