0001 Increase 0 0027 NS Increase <0 0001 PDO100 vs PAO1 10 Decre

0001 Increase 0.0027 NS Increase <0.0001 PDO100 vs. PAO1 10 Decrease 0.0026 Decrease 0.0120 Increase 0.0020 NS Increase 0.0175 PW2798 vs. PAO1 10 NS NS NS NS NS

a All strains carry pMRP9-1 and were grown under 10% EO2 without shaking. b See Table 1 for description of parameters. c NS, no significant difference. d Significant change with P value indicated below direction of change. Quorum sensing affects the development of PAO1 BLS in ASM+ The three quorum sensing (QS) systems las, rhl, and pqs contribute to the development of P. aeruginosa biofilms [28–30]. Mutants defective in one or more of these systems failed to form well developed biofilms compared with the PAO1 parent strain [28–30]. Using a conventional biofilm medium (LB broth), we compared the biofilm developed on a plastic cover slip in a Alvelestat purchase microtiter plate well by PAO1 and its lasR, lasI, rhlR, rhlI, and PF-01367338 pqsA mutants. With the exception of the medium, the biofilms were developed under the same conditions that we used to develop the BLS. Compared with PAO1, all QS mutants produced reduced biofilms (data not

shown). We then examined the contribution of the QS systems to the formation of the PAO1 BLS in ASM+, by comparing the structures formed by PAO1 with those formed by these same QS mutants. The mutants were transformed with pMRP9-1 and the development of the BLS by the transformants was examined under 10% EO2 for 3 d at 37°C. The las mutants PAO-R1 (ΔlasR) and PAO-JP1 (ΔlasI) produced BLS that visually and architecturally resembled each other (Figure 8A, B). With respect to the five tested parameters, BLS produced by PAO-JP1 were not significantly different from those BLS produced by PAO1 (Tables 3 and 4). The mean thickness of BLS produced by PAO-R1 was significantly higher than that of PAO1 BLS while the roughness coefficient was significantly

lower (Tables 3 and 4). The pqs mutant PW728::pqsA-lacZ produced BLS that were not significantly different from PAO1 BLS (Figure 8; Tables 3 and 4). The biovolume and mean thickness of BLS produced by either the rhlI mutant (PDO100) or rhlR (PDO111) were significantly less than those produced by PAO1 (Figure 8; Tables 3 and 4). In contrast the values of the roughness coefficient and the surface to biovolume Cyclooxygenase (COX) ratio were significantly higher than those for PAO1 BLS (Figure 8; Table 3 and 4). These results suggest that among all three QS systems, rhlI and rhlR have a major impact on the development of BLS in ASM+ by PAO1. Figure 8 Loss of individual QS genes affects BLS formation. PAO1 strains defective in the lasR (PAO-R1), lasI (PAO-JP1), rhlR (PDO111), rhlI (PDO100), or pqsA (PW2798::pqsA-lacZ) genes were transformed with pMRP9-1 and the transformants plus PAO1/pMRP9-1 as a control were grown in ASM+ under 10% EO2 without shaking for 3 d. The BLS were analyzed as described in Figure 3. (A and C) Representative micrographs of the BLS; magnification, 10X; bar, 200.00 nm. (B and D) Respective 3-D images constructed from the CLSM micrographs.

Comments are closed.