Prevalence of Bacillus sp. among the biofilm forming community on Ti surface in marine environment

Abstract

Prevalence of bacterial species involved in biomineralization of manganese on titanium (Ti) surfaces in marine environment was revealed in this research work. This study involves one year sea water exposure of Ti and their periodical biofilm characterization was carried out to quantify the manganese oxidizing bacterial (MOB) presence in the biofilm formed on titanium surfaces. The total viable count study of Ti coupons exposed to sea water for one year resulted in 60% of the MOB in overall biofilm population. The biochemical characterization of MOB isolates were performed for the genus level identification of the seven bacterial isolates. Further, the seven strains were subjected to 16S rRNA gene sequencing. Evolutionary analysis was performed using MEGA 7 to obtain closely related strains within the groups. The manganese oxidizing ability of the bacterial isolates were determined with Leucoberbelin Blue Assay (LBB) and Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy studies (AAS). The results show that among the isolated marine MOB species, Bacillus sp. and Leptothrix sp. have the maximum Mn oxidizing property. The microtitre plate assay was performed to determine the biofilm forming ability of the isolated marine MOB species. All the results have confirmed the prevalence of Bacillus sp. among the biofilm colonizers on Ti surfaces when exposed in sea water.