The role of flagella and motility in the adherence and invasion to fish cell lines by Aeromonas hydrophila serogroup O:34 strains.

We compared the ability of Aeromonas hydrophila wild-type strains of serogroup O:34, non-motile Tn5 aflagellar mutants and the same mutants harboring a recombinant cosmid DNA from a library of A. hydrophila AH-3 (O:34, wild-type) that allows these mutants to make flagella and to be motile, to adhere and invade two fish cell lines. We found that motility is essential in these strains for adhesion, and also that possession of flagella is essential for the ability to invade the fish cell lines. We cannot rule out that flagella may be an adhesin, or that motility may also be involved in A. hydrophila serogroup O:34 bacterial invasion of both fish cell lines.