Abstract
Historically, multicellular bacterial communities, known as biofilms, have been thought to be held together solely by a self-produced extracellular matrix. Our study identified a novel mechanism maintaining Bacillus subtilis and Mycobacterium smegmatis biofilms—active production of calcite minerals. We studied, for the first time, the effects of mutants defective in biomineralization and calcite formation on biofilm development, resilience and morphology. We demonstrated that an intrinsic rise in carbon dioxide levels within the biofilm is a strong trigger for the initiation of calcite-dependent patterning. The calcite-dependent patterns provide resistance to environmental insults and increase the overall fitness of the microbial community. Our results suggest that it is highly feasible that the formation of mineral scaffolds plays a cardinal and conserved role in bacterial multicellularity.
Highlights
Biofilms are multicellular communities that were so far thought to be held together solely by a self-produced organic extracellular matrix.[1,2,3] Bacillus subtilis is a Gram-positive soil bacterium, well known for its ability to form robust and architecturally complex biofilms.[4]
We demonstrate that a mature 3D structure of mineral scaffolds holds the extracellular matrix and the bacterial cells together
We show that calcite-dependent morphogenesis is a conserved phenomenon, occurring in an additional genetically distant soil bacterium, Mycobacterium smegmatis
Summary
Biofilms are multicellular communities that were so far thought to be held together solely by a self-produced organic extracellular matrix.[1,2,3] Bacillus subtilis is a Gram-positive soil bacterium, well known for its ability to form robust and architecturally complex biofilms.[4]. Mineral precipitation by B. subtilis results in complex colony morphology To assess the possible roles of biomineralization in biofilm development, we grew wild-type B. subtilis cells on media in the presence or absence of calcium acetate as a calcium source.
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