title: Monitoring the colonization of monuments by bacteria: cultivation versus molecular methods.
abstract: Building materials commonly used in wall paintings and monuments (mortar, limestone and sandstone) were inoculated with an artificial consortium composed of 14 microorganisms and incubated for 6 months at 28 degrees C. The colonization of the different materials by the consortium was investigated. Culture-independent techniques revealed the presence of a diversity of bacteria, whereas culture-dependent techniques yielded mainly spore-forming bacteria. The data suggest that plating leads to an overestimation of the number of spore-forming bacteria with respect to quiescent vegetative forms; the latter are less easily cultured, but are readily detected by culture-independent techniques.
authors.affiliation: Instituto de Recursos Naturales y Agrobiologia, CSIC, Apartado 1052, Avenida Reina Mercedes, 10, 41012 Sevilla, Spain.
authors.forename: Leonila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Laiz
authors.forename: Guadalupe
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Piñar
authors.forename: Werner
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Lubitz
authors.forename: Cesareo
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Saiz-Jimenez
mesh_terms: D001108:Architecture; D001419:Bacteria / Q000145:classification* / Q000235:genetics / Q000254:growth & development*; D015373:Bacterial Typing Techniques; D003252:Construction Materials; D003470:Culture Media; D004269:DNA, Bacterial / Q000032:analysis; D004591:Electrophoresis, Polyacrylamide Gel / Q000379:methods; D004783:Environmental Microbiology; D016133:Polymerase Chain Reaction; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S / Q000235:genetics; D017422:Sequence Analysis, DNA
chemical_list: D003470:Culture Media; D004269:DNA, Bacterial; D012336:RNA, Ribosomal, 16S