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Updated: Jun 8, 2026

Quantifying Fish Swimming Behavior in Response to Acute Exposure of Aqueous Copper Using Computer Assisted Video and Digital Image Analysis
Published on: February 26, 2016
Copper stress targets the rcs system to induce multiaggregative behavior in a copper-sensitive Salmonella strain
Lucas B Pontel1, Alejandro Pezza, Fernando C Soncini
1Instituto de Biología Molecular y Celular de Rosario, Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas (IBR-CONICET), Departamento de Microbiología, Facultad de Ciencias Bioquímicas y Farmacéuticas, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, Rosario, Argentina.
Abstract:
Salmonella ΔcuiD strains form mucoid colonies on copper-containing solid media. We show here that this multiaggregative behavior is caused by the Rcs-dependent induction of colanic acid extracellular polysaccharide. Deletion of cps operon genes in a ΔcuiD strain increased the sensitivity to copper, indicating a role for colanic acid in copper resistance.
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