Overshadow Effect of Psl on Bacterial Response to Physiochemically Distinct Surfaces Through Motility-Based Characterization.

Chunhui Zhai,Wenchao Zhang,Luyan Z Ma,Kun Zhao,Jingchao Zhang

doi:10.3389/fcimb.2018.00383

Chunhui Zhai, Wenchao Zhang + Show 3 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3389/fcimb.2018.00383

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Abstract

Biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa are ubiquitously found on surfaces of many medical devices, which are the major cause of hospital-acquired infections. A large amount of work has been focused on bacterial attachment on surfaces. However, how bacterial cells evolve on surfaces after their attachment is the key to get better understanding and further control of biofilm formation. In this work, by employing both single-cell- and collective-motility of cells, we characterized the bacterial surface movement on physiochemically distinct surfaces. The measurement of cell surface motility showed consistent results that gold and especially platinum surfaces displayed a stronger capability in microcolony formation than polyvinyl chloride and polycarbonate surfaces. More interestingly, we found that overproduction of Psl led to a narrower variance in cell surface motility among tested surfaces, indicating an overshadow effect of Psl for bacteria by screening the influence of physicochemical properties of solid surfaces. Our results provide insights into how Pseudomonas aeruginosa cells adapt their motion to physiochemically distinct surfaces, and thus would be beneficial for developing new anti-biofouling techniques in biomedical engineering.

Highlights

Biofilms are surface-associated multicellular communities in which microbial cells are embedded in extracellular polymeric matrices (Costerton et al, 1987; O’Toole et al, 2000; Hall-Stoodley et al, 2004; Oliveira et al, 2015)
If the Psl production of P. aeruginosa WT cells is heterogeneous, bacterial cells that would colonize a surface could be passively selected by the physicochemical properties of the surface based on cells’ Psl production activities
In this study we have provided a comprehensive characterization of bacterial surface motility using both single-cell- and collectivemotility on different surfaces

Summary

Introduction

Biofilms are surface-associated multicellular communities in which microbial cells are embedded in extracellular polymeric matrices (Costerton et al, 1987; O’Toole et al, 2000; Hall-Stoodley et al, 2004; Oliveira et al, 2015) They are ubiquitously found on surfaces of various devices including medical implants (Manivasagam et al, 2010) and industrial equipment like tubes and engine cooling machines (Starosvetsky et al, 2007), which cause an increasing rate of hospital-acquired infections (Page et al, 2009; Cloutier et al, 2015) as well as biocorrosion of industrial equipment (Li et al, 2011). Bacterial surface exploration pattern could be affected by Psl through a Psl-guided rich-get-richer mechanism (Zhao et al, 2013), implying the crucial role of Psl for biofilm development, at early stages including attachment to solid surfaces and microcolony formation

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