Enhanced bacterial metabolism of a Pseudomonas strain in response to the addition of culture filtrate of a bacteriophagous amoeba.

In a previous work, Levrat et al. [21] showed an enhancement of the production of pyoverdin (siderophore) by Pseudomonas putida in the presence of amoeba. To explain the mechanism of stimulation, the hypothesis of production of stimulatory factors by amoeba was proposed. Filtrates of both mixed culture of bacteria and amoeba (Pseudomonas putida + Acanthamoeba castellanii) and of axenic culture of amoeba were added to the culture medium of Pseudomonas. The production of pyoverdin was increased in the presence of the filtrates. The maximum stimulation was observed with a 6 to 8 day old mixed culture filtrate at 2% final concentration. A higher amount of filtrate did not enhance the stimulation. General metabolisms like ammonium production or respiration were also enhanced in the presence of filtrate of mixed cultures. Filtrates of axenic culture of amoeba were also able to stimulate the production of pyoverdin by Pseudomonas. This stimulation of the bacterial metabolism was not correlated with a higher growth of the bacterial population. Then, the enhancement of the bacterial metabolic activity was not due to a rapid recycling of the bacterial biomass but rather to a production of stimulatory factors by amoeba.