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Biofilm matrix

About: Biofilm matrix is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1589 publications have been published within this topic receiving 110140 citations.


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The applicability of urea as an alternative, economical, eco-friendly and effective chemical cleaning agent for the control of biological fouling was successfully demonstrated.

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Jun 2020-Langmuir
TL;DR: This work demonstrates a means to improve efficacy while simultaneously reducing both cost and the amount of environmentally harmful substances used, and finds that sophorolipids act cooperatively with the widely used surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate.
Abstract: Biofilms are communities of bacteria encased in self-secreted extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that adhere stubbornly to submerged surfaces. Once established, these communities can cause serious chronic illnesses in medical settings, while they can promote corrosion and biofouling in industrial settings. Due to the difficulty of their removal, strongly oxidizing chemicals and detergents can be used to degrade and remove biofilms by killing the cells and degrading the matrix; however, the choice of compounds is limited in delicate environments due to the potential damage they may cause. In the case of detergents, most are synthesized from nonrenewable petrochemicals that have a degree of aquatic toxicity. There is a growing need to identify and characterize alternatives to synthetic surfactants. Biosurfactants, which are surfactants produced by microorganisms, are a promising alternative since they can be synthesized from renewable resources, have low environmental toxicity, and have been shown to have higher degrees of specificity in the mechanism of action. Sophorolipids are a class of glycolipid surfactants produced by yeast that have demonstrated great promise due to large yields from renewable feedstocks and for antimicrobial properties; however, the effect of the application of sophorolipids to Gram-negative bacterial biofilms has not been well studied. We investigate the antibiofilm properties of sophorolipids by demonstrating its ability to cause the catastrophic disruption of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 biofilms in microfluidic channels. We show that while sophorolipids inflict little damage to the bacteria, they weaken the EPS biofilm matrix, leading to surface-detachment and breakup of the biofilm. Furthermore, we find that sophorolipids act cooperatively with the widely used surfactant, sodium dodecyl sulfate. When combined, concentrations ∼100-fold lower than the minimum effective concentration, when used independently, recover potency. Biosurfactants are typically expensive to produce, thus our work demonstrates a means to improve efficacy while simultaneously reducing both cost and the amount of environmentally harmful substances used.

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
Faizan A. Sadiq1, Bowen Yan1, Jianxin Zhao1, Hao Zhang1, Wei Chen1 
TL;DR: In this paper, metabolic insights into Bifidobacterium bifidum biofilm and planktonic states using untargeted metabolomics were provided using PCA and PLS-DA.
Abstract: Bifidobacterium bifidum is the major and dominant coloniser of the human gut which can form biofilms on mucosa, epithelial cells, and food residues in the gut lumen. This study provided metabolic insights into B. bifidum biofilm and planktonic states using untargeted metabolomics. The two states were clearly distinguishable by PCA and PLS-DA. Out of the total 173 metabolites, only 48 metabolites showed fold change (FC) ≥ 1 (p l -histidine, l -alanine, and d -methionine were significantly more expressed. Metabolites involved in nucleotides (adenine, guanine, thymine, and uracil) synthesis/regulation were prevalent in biofilms. Similarly, Poly-N-acetylglucosamine, an exopolysaccharide which serves as a major component of biofilm matrix, was more expressed in biofilms (FC ≥ 4). These comprehensive insights emphasize the fact that functional claims related to metabolism of this probiotic species should be state-dependent.

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: It is demonstrated that domesticated strains of B. subtilis carry a mutation in sigH, which influences the expression kinetics of the early spore gene spoIIG, thereby increasing the penetrance of the ylbF, ymcA and yaaT sporulation phenotypes.
Abstract: Bacillus subtilis can enter three developmental pathways to form spores, biofilms or K-state cells. The K-state confers competence for transformation and antibiotic tolerance. Transition into each of these states requires a stable protein complex formed by YlbF, YmcA and YaaT. We have reported that this complex acts in sporulation by accelerating the phosphorylation of the response regulator Spo0A. Phosphorelay acceleration was also predicted to explain their involvement in biofilm formation and the K-state. This view has been challenged in the case of biofilms, by the suggestion that the three proteins act in association with the mRNA degradation protein RNaseY (Rny) to destabilize the sinR transcript. Here, we reaffirm the roles of the three proteins in supporting the phosphorylation of Spo0A for all three developmental pathways and show that in their absence sinR mRNA is not stabilized. We demonstrate that the three proteins also play unknown Spo0A-P-independent roles in the expression of biofilm matrix and in the production of ComK, the master transcription factor for competence. Finally, we show that domesticated strains of B. subtilis carry a mutation in sigH, which influences the expression kinetics of the early spore gene spoIIG, thereby increasing the penetrance of the ylbF, ymcA and yaaT sporulation phenotypes.

29 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: A biofilm system with constant medium flow and a temporal controlled reporter-system of transcription was used to identify genes induced during dynamic biofilm formation and identified genes known or predicted to be involved in c-di-GMP signaling, motility and chemotaxis, metabolism, and transport.

29 citations


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Performance
Metrics
No. of papers in the topic in previous years
YearPapers
20224
2021138
2020189
2019157
2018121
2017113