Characterizing Biofilm Dispersion in OG1RF transposon mutants

Authors: Marian Abdikarin, Peter Mckenney, Nermin Mohamed

SUNY Campus: Binghamton University

Presentation Type: Oral

Location: UUW 324

Presentation #: 1

Timeslot: Session A 9:00-10:00 AM

Abstract: Our project studies Enterococcus faecalis, a gut bacterium that can cause severe infections and form resistant biofilms on medical devices, catheters, and heart valves in endocarditis. This project explores biofilm dispersion, the final, uncharacterized step in E. faecalis biofilm life cycles. Our Lab has shown that in experiments performed in semi-batch cultures, a 10-fold increase in nutrients resulted in a statistically significant dispersion response in OG1RF and it was visualized with ZEISS Confocal Microscopy. Next, we wished to evaluate nutrient induced biofilm dispersion in ΔmntE, ΔpglA and ΔsalA transposon mutants and chose to challenge biofilm cultures after 4 days of growth to ensure that there was no interference from self-induced dispersion. We observed statistically significant reduced dispersion in the ΔsalA and ΔmntE transposon disruption cultures compared to the OG1RF wild type and ΔpgIA. This suggests that ΔsalA and ΔmntE genes are likely modulators of biofilm dispersion in OG1RF. In summary, our study shows that OG1RF WT biofilms disperse with step-change in nutrients, with salA and mntE as likely effectors. This is important because identification of genes involved in OG1RF biofilm dispersion will allow it to be targeted therapeutically to reduce biofilm antibiotic tolerance.