Abstract
Salmonella
is an international food-borne pathogen disseminated widely in seawater that regularly causes large outbreaks of food poisoning. In this study, we investigated the effect of starvation on the survival ability of
Salmonella enterica
serovar Typhimurium
rpoS
+
and its mutant
rpoS
–
after a 6-month incubation in seawater microcosms using a colorimetric XTT assay and colony forming units (CFU). The effect of pre-adaptation in seawater and the
rpoS
gene on the tolerance to heavy metals of this microorganism was also investigated. Our results showed that the number of cells decreased by ∼ 5 log units for the strain
rpoS
+
and by ∼ 5.5 log units for the mutant
rpoS
–
after this period of stress. At the end of the experiments, cell viability was around of 20% and 10% for the wild type and mutant, respectively. We also revealed that the minimal inhibitory concentration values and cell viability under zinc, cobalt, mercury, chromium and cadmium heavy metals were decreased for the two starved strains.