2012
Volume 12, Number 4, pp. 161–167
Altered Mycobacterium tuberculosis under an AFM tip
Genady Zhavnerko, Parissa Farnia and Nikolai Poleschuk
The Republican Research and Practical Centre for Epidemiology and Microbiology, 23 Filimonova St, 220016 Minsk, Belarus
This paper concerns Mycobacterium tuberculosis adaptation in aggressive environments. Transformation of the shape of the bacterium and the formation of a “hard” shell caused by the presence of antibiotics or in anaerobic conditions were characterized by atomic force microscopy (AFM). The application of AFM for the study of antibiotic-resistant forms of Mycobacterium tuberculosis revealed the presence of round bacteria along with the traditional rod-shaped ones. It has also been concluded that by changing the surface charge of the cell membrane the mutated forms may be moved along the surface by the scanning tip with ease, since the round bacteria are weakly fixed to its charged surface.
Keywords: AFM, bacteria, Mycobacterium tuberculosis, altered forms