Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-10-2006

Publication Title

Applied and Environmental Microbiology

Department

Geisel School of Medicine

Abstract

The host specificity of the gram-negative exoparasitic predatory bacterium Micavibrio aeruginosavorus was examined. M. aeruginosavorus preyed on Pseudomonas aeruginosa, as previously reported, as well as Burkholderia cepacia, Klebsiella pneumoniae, and numerous clinical isolates of these species. In a static assay, a reduction in biofilm biomass was observed as early as 3 hours after exposure to M. aeruginosavorus, and an ∼100-fold reduction in biofilm cell viability was detected following a a 24-h exposure to the predator. We observed that an initial titer of Micavibrio as low as 10 PFU/well or a time of exposure to the predator as short as 30 min was sufficient to reduce a P. aeruginosa biofilm. The ability of Micavibrio to reduce an existing biofilm was confirmed by scanning electron microscopy. In static and flow cell experiments, M. aeruginosavorus was able to modify the overall P. aeruginosa biofilm structure and markedly decreased the viability of P. aeruginosa. The altered biofilm structure was likely caused by an increase in cell-cell interactions brought about by the presence of the predator or active predation. We also conducted a screen to identify genes important for P. aeruginosa-Micavibrio interaction, but no candidates were isolated among the 10,000 mutants tested.

DOI

10.1128/AEM.01893-06

Original Citation

Kadouri D, Venzon NC, O'Toole GA. Vulnerability of pathogenic biofilms to Micavibrio aeruginosavorus. Appl Environ Microbiol. 2007 Jan;73(2):605-14. doi: 10.1128/AEM.01893-06. Epub 2006 Nov 10. PMID: 17098913; PMCID: PMC1796979.

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