Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation
Bacterial biofilms have an impact in medical and industrial environments because they often confer protection to bacteria against harmful agents, and constitute a source from which microorganisms can disperse. Conjugative plasmids can enhance bacterial ability to form biofilms because conjugative pi...
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Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/10451/45453 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 |
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ftunivlisboa:oai:repositorio.ul.pt:10451/45453 2023-05-15T14:26:38+02:00 Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation Gama, João Alves Fredheim, Elizabeth G. Aarag Cléon, François Reis, Ana Maria Zilhão, Rita Dionisio, Francisco 2020-12-18T14:15:23Z http://hdl.handle.net/10451/45453 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 eng eng Frontiers JFCT grant SFRH/BD/86103/2012 UiT The Arctic University of Norway through UiT publication fund. FCT UID/BIA/00329/2013 (cE3c) Gama JA, Fredheim EGA, Cléon F, Reis AM, Zilhão R and Dionisio F (2020) Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation. Front. Microbiol. 11:2070. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 http://hdl.handle.net/10451/45453 doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ CC-BY article 2020 ftunivlisboa https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 2022-05-25T18:41:54Z Bacterial biofilms have an impact in medical and industrial environments because they often confer protection to bacteria against harmful agents, and constitute a source from which microorganisms can disperse. Conjugative plasmids can enhance bacterial ability to form biofilms because conjugative pili act as adhesion factors. However, plasmids may interact with each other, either facilitating or inhibiting plasmid transfer. Accordingly, we asked whether effects on plasmid transfer also impacts biofilm formation. We measured biofilm formation of Escherichia coli cells harboring two plasmid types, or when the two plasmids were present in the same population but carried in different cells. Using eleven natural isolated conjugative plasmids, we confirmed that some indeed promote biofilm formation and, importantly, that this ability is correlated with conjugative efficiency. Further we studied the effect of plasmid pairs on biofilm formation. We observed increased biofilm formation in approximately half of the combinations when both plasmids inhabited the same cell or when the plasmids were carried in different cells. Moreover, in approximately half of the combinations, independent of the co-inhabitation conditions, one of the plasmids alone determined the extent of biofilm formation - thus having a dominant effect over the other plasmid. The molecular mechanisms responsible for these interactions were not evaluated here and future research is required to elucidate them. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Universidade de Lisboa: repositório.UL Frontiers in Microbiology 11 |
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Universidade de Lisboa: repositório.UL |
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ftunivlisboa |
language |
English |
description |
Bacterial biofilms have an impact in medical and industrial environments because they often confer protection to bacteria against harmful agents, and constitute a source from which microorganisms can disperse. Conjugative plasmids can enhance bacterial ability to form biofilms because conjugative pili act as adhesion factors. However, plasmids may interact with each other, either facilitating or inhibiting plasmid transfer. Accordingly, we asked whether effects on plasmid transfer also impacts biofilm formation. We measured biofilm formation of Escherichia coli cells harboring two plasmid types, or when the two plasmids were present in the same population but carried in different cells. Using eleven natural isolated conjugative plasmids, we confirmed that some indeed promote biofilm formation and, importantly, that this ability is correlated with conjugative efficiency. Further we studied the effect of plasmid pairs on biofilm formation. We observed increased biofilm formation in approximately half of the combinations when both plasmids inhabited the same cell or when the plasmids were carried in different cells. Moreover, in approximately half of the combinations, independent of the co-inhabitation conditions, one of the plasmids alone determined the extent of biofilm formation - thus having a dominant effect over the other plasmid. The molecular mechanisms responsible for these interactions were not evaluated here and future research is required to elucidate them. info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersion |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Gama, João Alves Fredheim, Elizabeth G. Aarag Cléon, François Reis, Ana Maria Zilhão, Rita Dionisio, Francisco |
spellingShingle |
Gama, João Alves Fredheim, Elizabeth G. Aarag Cléon, François Reis, Ana Maria Zilhão, Rita Dionisio, Francisco Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation |
author_facet |
Gama, João Alves Fredheim, Elizabeth G. Aarag Cléon, François Reis, Ana Maria Zilhão, Rita Dionisio, Francisco |
author_sort |
Gama, João Alves |
title |
Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation |
title_short |
Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation |
title_full |
Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation |
title_fullStr |
Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation |
title_full_unstemmed |
Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation |
title_sort |
dominance between plasmids determines the extent of biofilm formation |
publisher |
Frontiers |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://hdl.handle.net/10451/45453 https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
JFCT grant SFRH/BD/86103/2012 UiT The Arctic University of Norway through UiT publication fund. FCT UID/BIA/00329/2013 (cE3c) Gama JA, Fredheim EGA, Cléon F, Reis AM, Zilhão R and Dionisio F (2020) Dominance Between Plasmids Determines the Extent of Biofilm Formation. Front. Microbiol. 11:2070. doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 http://hdl.handle.net/10451/45453 doi:10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 |
op_rights |
openAccess http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ |
op_rightsnorm |
CC-BY |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.3389/fmicb.2020.02070 |
container_title |
Frontiers in Microbiology |
container_volume |
11 |
_version_ |
1766299906076573696 |