Mycobacteria in water, soil, plants and air: a review

Abstract

Amazingly, despite the 24 143 papers on mycobacteria, indexed in the Web of Science database during the last six years, published by 67 008 authors from 13 128 organizations located in 166 countries or territories, internationally accepted legal directives on how to control the public health risk associated with environmental mycobacteria have yet to be developed. Mycobacteria are human and animal pathogens, causing not only tuberculosis and leprosy, but mycobacterioses of skin, soft tissues and lung. Due to their cell wall composition and their adaptability mycobacteria can survive in different habitats for years. Their immunomodulatory ability has been recognised for more than 50 years and hundreds of papers published during the last two decades have demonstrated that small chemical products derived from mycobacterial cells participate in inflammatory pathways involved the pathogenesis of important human diseases like Crohn's disease, asthma, type 1 diabetes mellitus, psoriasis, arthrosis, Blau syndrom, sarcoidosis, autism etc. Mycobacteria can influence inflammatory pathways not only as live organisms, but also by means of components derived from dead cells. Pasteurisation or cooking does not affect this ability. Hence, how many mycobacterial cells are ingested, what factors play a role concurrently, and how long the harmful effect persists become important questions. This paper presents only a short review based on selected papers about mycobacteria in water, soil, plants and air with the aim of attracting attention to this significant global problem and of making the first steps towards protection of people. Selected bibliographic references of published data from 2007 to 2012 are presented in easy-to-navigate tables.Keywords: Mycobacterium; water; soil; plant; vegetables; air; biofilm; sediment; determination; zoonoses; food safety List of abbreviations CFU = colony forming units; DGGE = denaturation gradient gel electrophoresis; IMS = immuno-magnetic separation; IS = insertion sequence; ITS = intergenic transcribed spacer; MAC = Mycobacterium avium complex; MAP/Map = Mycobacterium avium subsp. paratuberculosis; MTC = Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex; MWF = metal working fluids; nPCR = nested PCR; NTM = non-tuberculous mycobacteria; PCR = polymerase chain reaction; PPM = potentially pathogenic mycobacteria; qPCR = quantitative real time PCR; RFLP = restriction fragment length polymorphism

Mycobacterium aviumsubspeciesparatuberculosis –an important food borne pathogen of high public health significance with special reference to India: an update

“…By contrast, MAP is physically more robust than other mycobacteria and is known to survive for months and perhaps years (Table 5). Geographical regions having acidic soils enriched with humic and fulvic acids, boreal forests and areas with heavy rainfall may favor the accumulation and persistence of MAP in the environment (Singh et al 2012b;Hruska and Kaevska, 2012;Thomson et al 2013;Rhodes et al 2014). There are no reported studies to give us detailed understanding of the ecology and providence and presence of MAP in the atmosphere and potential cycling of MAP through human populations.…”

A CRISPR‐Cpf1‐Assisted Non‐Homologous End Joining Genome Editing System of Mycobacterium smegmatis

“…Mycobacterium tuberculosis , an important pathogen, poses a worldwide public health threat, and because it is rapidly becoming multi‐drug resistant, it has attracted broad scientific interest . However, M. tuberculosis research is limited because of its pathogenicity and slow‐growth (24 h doubling time) .…”

Occurrence of Amoeba and Amoeba-resistent Mycobacteria in Source and Drinking Water

“…Ako odpoveď na túto aktivitu si veľa baktérií vytvorilo odolnosť voči stráveniu v potravových vakuolách améb (21). (30). Vďaka ich vysokej odolnosti ich môžeme nájsť aj v zásobách a rozvodoch pitnej vody v mestách.…”