Abstract
After the first ancient studies on microbial slime (the name by which the biofilm matrix was initially indicated), multitudes of studies on the morphology, composition and physiology of biofilms have arisen. The emergence of the role that biofilms play in the pathogenesis of recalcitrant and persistent clinical infections, such as periprosthetic orthopedic infections, has reinforced scientific interest. Extracellular DNA (eDNA) is a recently uncovered component that is proving to be almost omnipresent in the extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) of biofilm. This macromolecule is eliciting unprecedented consideration for the critical impact on the pathogenesis of chronic clinical infections. After a systematic review of the literature, an updated description of eDNA in biofilms is presented, with a special focus on the latest findings regarding its fundamental structural role and the contribution it makes to the complex architecture of bacterial biofilms through interactions with a variety of other molecular components of the biofilm matrix.
Highlights
After the first ancient studies on microbial slime, multitudes of studies on the morphology, composition and physiology of biofilms have arisen
Other bacterial factors described to interact with Extracellular DNA (eDNA) and hypothesized to play a function in stabilizing the biofilm architecture include: lysozyme LytC, a S. pneumoniae extra-cellular cell wall hydrolase that forms intercellular DNA-LytC protein complexes in pneumococcal biofilms [130]; Enterococcus faecalis PrgB, whose adhesin domain binds and compacts DNA with a histone-like DNA condensation mechanism [131,132]; Streptococcus intermedius histone-like DNA-binding protein (Si-HLP) [133,134]; GAPDH and enolase S. aureus proteins, which are positively charged at pH 5 [81,86,104]; and Neisseria heparin-binding antigen (NhbA) and α-peptide of IgA protease both expressed by Neisseria meningitidis [135]
Based on convergent recent findings, eDNA consistently emerges as a main structural element of a self-assembling architecture, which coordinates and bind a broad range of compounds secreted by bacteria, present in the environment, or provided by the host
Summary
This review was generated in a context of a broader systematic survey aimed at gathering all the information currently available in the literature on extracellular DNA, with special reference to the physiology and functions in bacterial biofilms. Curtrix have progressively identified, rent research efforts are progressively being being focused on establishing if and how each single current research efforts are progressively focused on establishing if and how each polymeric substance structurally integrates with the others to originate the typical biofilm single polymeric substance structurally integrates with the others to originate the typical architectural frame In this regard, eDNA has clearly emerged to play a pivotal role and develop different physico-chemical interactions with main EPS components of the biofilm extracellular matrix, and with factors expressed on the bacterial surfaces and with abiotic surfaces. The interactions of eDNA with biofilm exopolysaccharides and proteins will be treated in the following paragraphs
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