Survival and Growth Rate Analysis of Public Transport-Associated Bacterial Community Models on Antimicrobial Surfaces

Abstract

In our society, massive amounts of people use public transportation, due to this, these spaces have shown to harbour several bacterial species and help its spread between users. This thesis aims to use a microbiome comprised of similar species found in public transportation and evaluate how these are affected when deposited in surfaces made from materials with antimicrobial properties, such as copper- coated glass, copper (smooth and profiled) and AZO. The microbial community used in this thesis is composed of S. capitis, B. lata, C. halotolerans, S. halotolerans, S. rubra, E. viikkiensis, F. frigoris, P. cyclohexanicum and P. antarctica. In order to quantify and characterise how the antimicrobial materials affect the community, measurement of their optical density via the use of a growth assay and an alamarBlue assay, as well as the number of colony forming units after exposure was done. Furthermore, two bacteria (S. capitis and B. lata) from the community contain antibiotic resistance genes in order to observe their individual growth in antibiotic media. A final experiment is done with S. capitis to measure the changes in expression of copA, in order to observe possible changes in expression by contact with copper and its relation to copper resistance.