Project description:P. aeruginosa PA14 mutant strain PA4496 expression in biofilm cells relative to PA14 wild-type strain expression in biofilm cells. All samples cultured in LB with glass wool
Project description:Biofilms are ubiquitous in natural, medical, and engineering environments. While most antibiotics that primarily aim to inhibit cell growth may result in bacterial drug resistance, biofilm inhibitors do not affect cell growth and there is less chance of developing resistance. This work sought to identify novel, non-toxic and potent biofilm inhibitors from Streptomyces bacteria for reducing the biofilm formation of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1. Out of 4300 Streptomyces strains, one species produced and secreted peptide(s) to inhibit P. aeruginosa biofilm formation by 93% without affecting the growth of planktonic cells. Global transcriptome analyses (DNA microarray) revealed that the supernatant of the Streptomyces 230 strain induced phenazine, pyoverdine, and pyochelin synthesis genes. Electron microscopy showed that the supernatant of Streptomyces 230 strain reduced the production of polymeric matrix in P. aeruginosa biofilm cells, while the Streptomyces species enhanced swarming motility of P. aeruginosa. Therefore, current study suggests that Streptomyces bacteria are an important resource of biofilm inhibitors as well as antibiotics.
Project description:Neisseria gonorrhoeae, the etiologic agent of gonorrhea, is frequently asymptomatic in women, often leading to chronic infections. One factor contributing to this may be biofilm formation. N. gonorrhoeae can form biofilms over glass and plastic surfaces. There is also evidence that biofilm formation may occur during natural cervical infection. To further study the mechanism of this biofilm formation, transcriptional profiles of N. gonorrhoeae biofilm were compared to planktonic profiles. Biofilm RNA was extracted from N. gonorrhoeae 1291 grown for 48 hours in continuous flow chambers over glass. Planktonic RNA was extracted from the biofilm runoff. When biofilm was compared to planktonic growth, 3.8 % of the genome was differentially regulated. Genes highly up-regulated in biofilm included aniA, norB, and ccp, which play critical roles in anaerobic metabolism and oxidative stress tolerance. Down-regulated genes included the nuo gene cluster (NADH dehydrogenase) and the cytochrome bcI complex, which are involved in aerobic respiration and are thought to contribute to endogenous oxidative stress. Furthermore, we determined that aniA, ccp, and norB insertional mutants are attenuated for biofilm formation over glass and transformed human cervical epithelial cells (THCEC). This data suggests that biofilm formation could minimize oxidative stress during cervical infection and allow N. gonorrhoeae to maintain a nitric oxide steady state that may be anti-inflammatory.
Project description:The gene expression of glasswool biofilm cells in E. coli yjgI mutant vs. E. coli wild type strain in LB. Strains: E. coli K12 BW25113 wild type, yjgI mutant Medium: LB Biofilm grown on glass wool Time: 15 h Cell type: biofilm
Project description:E. coli K-12 wild type strains gene expression in biofilm cells with R1drd19 relative to that in biofilm cells of E. coli K-12 wild type strains without R1drd19. All the samples were cultured in LB or M9C glu on glass wool at different time. Keywords: biofilm
Project description:Biofilms are broadly formed by a diversity of microorganisms that enable them to adapt stressful environments. Biofilms often impose harmful influences in many niches, as they can cause food contamination, antibiotics resistance, and environmental issues. However, eradicating biofilms remains difficult since the formation mechanism of biofilms are still incompletely clarified. In this study, we aimed at exploring the regulatory role of magnesium (Mg2+) on biofilm formation in Escherichia coli (E. coli) using phenotype visualization combined with targeted metabolomics method. We found that Mg2+ could exert significant influence on biofilm formation in a concentration-dependent manner by regulating phenotypic morphology and triggering metabolic modifications of biofilm. Phenotypic imaging revealed that increasing concentration of Mg2+ gradually inhibited biofilm formation, Mg2+ was observed to restore the microstructure of E. coli strain in biofilms to that in the relevant planktonic cells. In addition, our metabolomics analysis characterized 20 differential metabolites and associated 2 metabolic pathways including nucleotide metabolism and amino acid metabolism that were notably modified during biofilm formation under the treatments of different concentrations of Mg2+. Altogether, our work provides a novel insight into the influence of Mg2+ on biofilm formation at a metabolic level, which are implicated in the novel solution to disturb biofilm formation through the regulation of Mg2+ and functional metabolite interaction, then biofilms associated harmful impacts in different niches could be well tangled accordingly.