Morphological Characteristics and growth abilities of free living amoeba isolated from domestic tap water samples in İstanbul

Abstract

Free living amoeba (FLA) have been isolated from water and soil samples throughout the world. Among themany genera of FLA, members of only four genera are responsible for human disease: Acanthamoeba spp.,Balamuthia mandrillaris, Naegleria fowleri and Sappinia diploidea. Naegleria spp. and Acanthamoeba spp.can be cultivated on nonnutrient agar (NNA) in the presence of living or dead bacteria. Balamuthia, however,will not grow with bacteria as a food source but they can feed upon smaller soil amoeba. In the current studywe try to find out the morphological appearance (Trichrome staining) and growth characteristics of free livingamoeba in different liquid culture media previously isolated from domestic tap water samples (10 isolates) anda strain of Acanthamoeba castellanii (A. castellanii) isolated from a keratitis case. Although A.castellanii straingrew on proteose peptone-yeast extract-glucose and proteose peptone-yeast (with or without antibiotics), ourisolates from domestic tap water samples did not grow on any tested liquid culture media. It is suggested thatinvestigating both the morphological characteristics and the growth characteristics on liquid culture media arenecessary for the identification of free living amoeba.