Submitted by malahchi t3_1118ssa in askscience
hausermaniac t1_j8dz6m0 wrote
Reply to comment by AdTechnical8967 in What do bacteria living in mechanical ventilation feed on ? by malahchi
FYI just to clarify some of the things you've said:
>All that stuff can stick to the walls of the ventilation system, creating biofilms where amoeba and other microbes can feed on
Biofilms are formed by bacteria, not the other way around. They do contribute to persistence and survival as many of the individual cells within a biofilm are not actively metabolizing, making them need fewer nutrients and making them very hard to kill
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>Legionella lives in some of these microbes
Legionella is a microbe (gram-negative bacterium), and it can live within other organisms (like amoebae) as an intracellular parasite, but it does not necessarily have to
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>Legionela needs Iron to survive, so they can easilly get it from the corrotion ocurring from the "weathering" of the ventilation system
Almost all bacteria need small amounts of iron (and other metals) to survive, but they don't need to be on a surface made of iron to acquire it. They can grow on surfaces made of many different types of materials
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