LAUSR

Abstract Staphylococcus aureus can survive at low temperature which existed a potential risk of food safety. In this paper, the properties of cold-induced small colony variants (SCVs) were investigated including the antibiotic resistance, biofilm formation and virulence. The results confirmed that the SCVs were menadione auxotrophic types with slow growth, reduced membrane potential, increased resistance to aminoglycosides, ampicillin, cefotetan, doxycycline and chloromycetin. Additionally, the biofilm formation of SCVs was enhanced following the up-regulated of icaADBC genes. The biofilms of S. aureus cells can be effectively eliminated by 1% concentration of ‘84′ disinfection and 3% concentration of hydrogen peroxide. Furthermore, SCVs could revert to a normal phenotype through subculture. And the reversion mutation (R) cells increased expression of virulence factors. The findings in this paper enriched the cataloguing of SCV formation.