Bacterial filamentation accelerates colonization of adhesive spots embedded in biopassive surfaces
Year: 2013
Type: article
Abstract: Sessile bacteria adhere to engineered surfaces and host tissues and pose a substantial clinical and economical risk when growing into biofilms.Most engineered and biological interfaces are of chemically heterogeneous nature and provide adhesive islands for bacterial attachment and growth.To mimic either defects in a surface coating of biomedical implants or heterogeneities within mucosal layers (Peyer's patches), we embedded micrometre-sized adhesive islands in a poly(ethylene glycol) biopassive background.We show experimentally and computationally that filamentation of Escherichia coli can significantly accelerate the bacterial surface colonization under physiological flow conditions.Filamentation can thus provide an advantage to a bacterial population to bridge non-adhesive distances exceeding 5 µm.Bacterial filamentation, caused by blocking of bacterial division, is common among bacterial species and can be triggered by environmental conditions or antibiotic treatment.While great awareness exists that the build-up of antibiotic resistance serves as intrinsic survival strategy, we show here that antibiotic treatment can actually promote surface colonization by triggering filamentation, which in turn
Source: New Journal of Physics
Institution: ETH Zurich
Language: English
Subfield: Molecular Biology
Domain: Life Sciences
Open Access status: gold
Estimated APC paid: $2,610
OpenAlex ID: W2060991133