Transmission of monospecies and dualspecies biofilms from smooth to nanopillared surfaces

Gusnaniar, Ferdi Hizal, Chang Hwan Choi, Jelmer Sjollema, Titik Nuryastuti, Minie Rustema-Abbing, Rene T. Rozenbaum, Henny C. van der Mei, Henk J. Busscher, Stefan W. Wessel

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

6 Scopus citations

Abstract

The transmission of bacteria in biofilms from donor to receiver surfaces precedes the formation of biofilms in many applications. Biofilm transmission is different from bacterial adhesion, because it involves biofilm compression in between two surfaces, followed by a separation force leading to the detachment of the biofilm from the donor surface and subsequent adhesion to the receiver surface. Therewith, the transmission depends on a balance between donor and receiver surface properties and the cohesiveness of the biofilm itself. Here, we compare bacterial transmission from biofilms of an extracellular-polymeric-substance (EPS)-producing and a non-EPS-producing staphylococcal strain and a dual-species oral biofilm from smooth silicon (Si) donor surfaces to smooth and nanopillared Si receiver surfaces. Biofilms were fully covering the donor surface before transmission. However, after transmission, the biofilms only partly covered the donor and receiver surfaces regardless of nanopillaring, indicating bacterial transmission through adhesive failure at the interface between biofilms and donor surfaces as well as through cohesive failure in the biofilms. The numbers of bacteria per unit volume in EPS-producing staphylococcal biofilms before transmission were 2-fold smaller than in biofilms of the non-EPS-producing strain and of dual species. This difference increased after transmission in the biofilm left behind on the donor surfaces due to an increased bacterial density for the non-EPS-producing strain and a dual-species biofilm. This suggests that biofilms of the non-EPS-producing strain and dual species remained compressed after transmission, while biofilms of the EPS-producing strain were induced to produce more EPS during transmission and relaxed toward their initial state after transmission due to the viscoelasticity conferred to the biofilm by its EPS.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere01035-18
JournalApplied and Environmental Microbiology
Volume84
Issue number15
DOIs
StatePublished - 1 Aug 2018

Keywords

  • Antimicrobials
  • Cohesive failure
  • Detachment
  • Dual-species biofilm
  • Staphylococcus epidermidis
  • Structure of a biofilm

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