Abstract
Bacterial biofilms are involved in various medical infections and for this reason it is of great importance to better understand the process of biofilm formation in order to eradicate or mitigate it. It is a very complex process and a large range of variables have been suggested to influence biofilm formation. However, their internal importance is still not well understood. In the present study, a range of surface properties of Pseudomonas aeruginosa lipopolysaccharide mutants were studied in relation to biofilm formation measured in different kinds of multi-well plates and growth conditions in order to better understand the complexity of biofilm formation. Multivariate analysis was used to simultaneously evaluate the role of a range of physiochemical parameters under different conditions. Our results suggest the presence of serum inhibited biofilm formation due to changes in twitching motility. From the multivariate analysis it was observed that the most important parameters, positively correlated to biofilm formation on two types of plates, were high hydrophobicity, near neutral zeta potential and motility. Negative correlation was observed with cell aggregation, as well as formation of outer membrane vesicles and exopolysaccharides. This work shows that the complexity of biofilm formation can be better understood using a multivariate approach that can interpret and rank the importance of different factors being present simultaneously under several different environmental conditions, enabling a better understanding of this complex process.
Highlights
The ability of bacteria to adhere to natural and artificial materials is a first step in biofilm formation, is central for bacterial survival, and has great clinical and environmental relevance [1,2,3]
We showed that LPS mutants of P. aeruginosa with different hydrophobicity and negative zeta potential colonized surfaces differently [1], which urged us to further investigate the influence of bacterial surface properties on bacterial adhesion and biofilm formation
In this study we have taken a multivariate approach to investigate the influence of different factors on biofilm formation by P. aeruginosa
Summary
The ability of bacteria to adhere to natural and artificial materials is a first step in biofilm formation, is central for bacterial survival, and has great clinical and environmental relevance [1,2,3]. We investigate how variations in amount of biofilm formed by LPS mutants was correlated to a combination of several factors: cell wall composition (with respect to peptidoglycan, protein, sugars and lipids), hydrophobicity, cell charges (as reflected in Zeta potential) and aggregation of bacterial cells, type of polystyrene culture plate, motility (swimming, swarming and twitching), secretion of exopolysaccharides, and release of outer membrane vesicles (OMVs). Multivariate analysis has been used to investigate the variance of surface physiochemical properties between a large range of bacterial species with the conclusion that 70% of the variability between strains could be explained by four components that were roughly described as presence of protein and phosphorous, negative charge, hydrophobic properties and iso-electric point of the bacterium [25,26].
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
