Symbiosis of Aeromonas veronii biovar sobria and Hirudo medicinalis, the medicinal leech: a novel model for digestive tract associations.

ABSTRACT: Hirudo medicinalis, the medicinal leech, is applied postoperatively in modern medicine. Infections by Aeromonas occur in up to 20% of patients unless a preemptive antibiotic treatment is administered. The associated infections demonstrate the need for a better understanding of the digestive tract flora of H. medicinalis. Early studies reported the presence of a single bacterial species in the digestive tract and suggested that these bacteria were endosymbionts contributing to the digestion of blood. In this study, we cultivated bacteria from the digestive tract and characterized them biochemically. The biochemical test results identified the isolates as Aeromonas veronii biovar sobria. This species identification was supported by sequence comparison of a variable region of the genes coding

SUBMITTER: Graf J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC96269 | biostudies-literature | 1999 Jan

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature