Abstract
Bacterial species are able to colonize and establish communities in biotic and abiotic surfaces. Moreover, within the past five decades, incidence of bacterial strains resistant to currently used antibiotics has increased dramatically. This has led to diverse health issues and economical losses for different industries. Therefore, there is a latent need to develop new and more efficient antimicrobials. This work reports an increased production of an exopolysaccharide in a native yeast strain isolated from the Mexican Northeast, Rhodotorula mucilaginosa UANL-001L, when co-cultured with E. coli. The exopolysaccharide produced is chemically and physically characterized and its applications as an antimicrobial and antibiofilm are explored. The exopolysaccharide is capable of inhibiting planktonic growth and biofilm formation in Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus. Additionally, the exopolysaccharide studied here does not exhibit cytotoxic effects when assessed both, in vitro against an H9c2 mammalian cell line, and in vivo in a murine toxicity model. Taken together, the properties of this exopolysaccharide indicate that it has potential applications to inhibit bacterial colonization in medical and industrial settlings.
Highlights
Bacterial species are able to colonize and establish communities in biotic and abiotic surfaces
The exopolysaccharide is capable of inhibiting planktonic growth and biofilm formation in Escherichia coli, Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Staphylococcus aureus
We find that Rhodotorula mucilaginosa UANL-001L increases EPS biosynthesis, when co-cultured with E. coli
Summary
Bacterial species are able to colonize and establish communities in biotic and abiotic surfaces. Within the past five decades, incidence of bacterial strains resistant to currently used antibiotics has increased dramatically. This has led to diverse health issues and economical losses for different industries. There is an urgent need to seek, develop and design new antimicrobials to treat infections and to combat bacterial strains in industrial settings[5]. It is imperative to develop new antimicrobials with the ability to control both planktonically grown bacteria and those found within biofilms[9,10]. In rare occasions, EPS can act as molecules that inhibit the biofilm formation process of competing microorganisms[21,22]
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