Biofilm formation of the L. monocytogenes strain 15G01 is influenced by changes in environmental conditions

Listeria monocytogenes 15G01, a strain belonging to the persistent pulsotype 5132, was isolated from a seafood processing plant in New Zealand. Simple monoculture assays using crystal violet staining showed good biofilm formation for this strain and it was therefore chosen to be further investigated in regard to its biofilm forming ability. To evaluate its behaviour in different conditions commonly encountered in food processing environments, biofilm assays and growth studies were performed using common laboratory media under a range of temperatures (20 °C, 30 °C and 37 °C). Furthermore, the effects of incubation time and different environmental conditions including static, dynamic and anaerobic incubation on biofilm formation were investigated. Changes in the environmental conditions resulted in different biofilm phenotypes of L. monocytogenes 15G01. We demonstrated that increasing temperature and incubation time led to a higher biofilm mass and that dynamic incubation has little effect on biofilm formation at 37 °C but encourages biofilm formation at 30 °C. Biofilm production at 20 °C was minimal regardless of the medium used. We furthermore observed that anaerobic environment led to reduced biofilm mass at 30 °C for all tested media but not at 37 °C. Biofilm formation could not be narrowed down to one factor but was rather dependent on multiple factors with temperature and medium having the biggest effects.