Issue 14, 2013
From the journal:

Soft Matter

The extracellular polysaccharide Pel makes the attachment of P. aeruginosa to surfaces symmetric and short-ranged†

Benjamin J. Cooley,a   Travis W. Thatcher,a   Sara M. Hashmi,b   Guillaume L'Her,a   Henry H. Le,a   Daniel A. Hurwitz,a   Daniele Provenzano,c   Ahmed Touhamid  and  Vernita D. Gordon*a  

* Corresponding authors

a Center for Nonlinear Dynamics and Department of Physics, University of Texas at Austin, 2515 Speedway, Austin, TX 78712, USA
E-mail: gordon@chaos.utexas.edu

b Department of Chemical and Environmental Engineering, Yale University, 9 Hillhouse Avenue, New Haven, CT 06510, USA

c Department of Biological Sciences and Department of Biomedical Sciences, University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville, TX 78520, USA

d Department of Physics and Astronomy, University of Texas at Brownsville, Brownsville, Texas 78520, USA

Abstract

Biofilms are surface-mounted, multicellular communities of microbes. Biofilms are often associated with chronic infections that resist treatment, evade the immune system, and damage host tissue. An essential characteristic of the biofilm state is that constituent organisms are bound in a polymeric matrix. This matrix gives the system spatial structure and clusters bacteria near each other, facilitating intercellular interactions. The Pseudomonas aeruginosa strain PAO1 is widely studied as a model biofilm-forming organism. The polymeric matrix of PAO1 biofilms is dominated by two bacteria-produced extracellular polymers, Pel and Psl. We use a combination of optical and atomic force microscopy to examine the roles of these polymers in very early biofilm development. In agreement with other researchers, we find that Psl mediates strong attachment to a glass surface. We find that Pel alone can mediate some attachment, but not as permanent as that mediated by Psl. Unexpectedly, we find that Pel promotes symmetric attachment, in the form of rod-shaped bacteria lying down flat on the surface, and that the presence of Pel makes attachment forces more short-ranged than they are with Psl alone. We suggest that these effects may result from synergistic interactions of Pel with the Psl polymeric matrix.

Graphical abstract: The extracellular polysaccharide Pel makes the attachment of P. aeruginosa to surfaces symmetric and short-ranged

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Article information

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1039/C3SM27638D
Article type
Paper
Submitted
15 Nov 2012
Accepted
07 Feb 2013
First published
28 Feb 2013

Soft Matter, 2013,9, 3871-3876

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The extracellular polysaccharide Pel makes the attachment of P. aeruginosa to surfaces symmetric and short-ranged

B. J. Cooley, T. W. Thatcher, S. M. Hashmi, G. L'Her, H. H. Le, D. A. Hurwitz, D. Provenzano, A. Touhami and V. D. Gordon, Soft Matter, 2013, 9, 3871 DOI: 10.1039/C3SM27638D

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