Morphological changes of starvedSalmonella enterica serovar Agona cells in soil after resuscitation

In this study we investigated the morphological and biochemical changes of Salmonella enterica serovar Agona incubated during 13 years in natural soil microcosm. After its resuscitation, the cells showed a biochemical profile completely inactive. These cells recuperated their initial characters after 6 months of incubation in Tryptic Soy broth. The scanning electron micrographs showed a reduction of the cells size and an evolution to coccoid-shapes. After 6 months of resuscitation, Salmonella enterica serovar Agona cells recuperated their original rod shape. The resuscitate cells of Salmonella enterica serovar Agona were identified by multiplex PCR following the simultaneous amplification of the phoP, Hin and H-li genes.