eDNA provides a scaffold for autoaggregation of B. subtilis in bacterioplankton suspension

Dogša, Iztok (author), Kostanjšek, Rok (author), Stopar, David (author)

The self-binding of bacterial cells, or autoaggregation, is, together with surface colonization, one of the first steps in the formation of a mature biofilm. In this work, the autoaggregation of B. subtilis in dilute bacterial suspensions was studied. The dynamics of cell lysis, eDNA release, and bacterial autoaggregate assembly were determined and related to the spatial autocorrelation of bacterial cells in dilute planktonic bacterial suspensions. The non-random distribution of cells was associated with an eDNA network, which stabilized the initial bacterial cell-cell aggregates. Upon the addition of DNase I, the aggregates were dispersed. The release of eDNA during cell lysis allows for the entrapment of bacterial drifters at a radius several times the size of the dying bacteria. The size of bacterial aggregates increased from 2 to about 100 μm in diameter in dilute bacterial suspensions. The results suggest that B. subtilis cells form previously unnoticed continuum of autoaggregate structures during planktonic growth.

• Language: English
• Keywords: autoaggregates, B. subtilis, plankton, eDNA, biofilm
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.01 - Original Scientific Article
• Organization: BF - Biotechnical Faculty
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2023
• Number of pages: 15 str.
• Numbering: Vol. 11, iss. 2, art. 332
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-145742
• UDC: 579.25:579.852.11
• ISSN on article: 2076-2607
• DOI: 10.3390/microorganisms11020332
• COBISS.SI-ID: 142263043
• Publication date in RUL: 11.05.2023

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: Microorganisms
• Shortened title: Microorganisms
• Publisher: MDPI AG
• ISSN: 2076-2607
• COBISS.SI-ID: 523277081

Licences

• License: CC BY 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
• Description: This is the standard Creative Commons license that gives others maximum freedom to do what they want with the work as long as they credit the author.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: avtoagregacija, eDNA, bakterijski plankton, Bacillus subtilis, biofilm