Use of Fluorophore-Conjugated Lectins To Study Cell-Cell Interactions in Model Marine Biofilms

Biofilms dominated by pennate diatoms are important in fields as diverse as ship biofouling and marine littoral sediment stabilization. The architecture of a biofilm depends on the fact that much of its mass consists of extracellular polymers. Although most illuminated biofilms in nature are dominat...

Full description

Saved in:
Bibliographic Details
Published in:Applied and Environmental Microbiology 2005, Vol.71 (1), p.428-435
Main Authors: Wigglesworth-Cooksey, Barbara, Cooksey, Keith E
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Amphora coffeaeformis
Animals
Bacillariophyceae
Bacteria - cytology
Bacteria - growth & development
Bacteria - metabolism
Biofilms - growth & development
Biological and medical sciences
Cell Adhesion
Diatoms - cytology
Diatoms - growth & development
Diatoms - metabolism
Diatoms - physiology
Fluorescent Dyes - metabolism
Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology
Glycoconjugates - metabolism
Lectins - metabolism
Marine
Methods
Microbiology
Microscopy, Confocal
Movement
Navicula
Polymers - metabolism
Pseudoalteromonas
Seawater - microbiology
Citations: Items that this one cites
Items that cite this one
Online Access:Get full text
Tags: Add Tag
No Tags, Be the first to tag this record!
Description
Summary:Biofilms dominated by pennate diatoms are important in fields as diverse as ship biofouling and marine littoral sediment stabilization. The architecture of a biofilm depends on the fact that much of its mass consists of extracellular polymers. Although most illuminated biofilms in nature are dominated by phototrophs, they also contain heterotrophic bacteria. Given the close spatial association of the two types of organisms, cell-cell interaction is likely. Fluorophore-conjugated lectins were used to demonstrate the sites of the various extracellular polymers in three species of diatoms. Based on their lectin staining properties, the polymers in different species appeared to be similar, but their involvement in the process of attachment to a surface differed. In a coculture Pseudoalteromonas sp. strain 4 or its sterilized spent medium reduced the ability of Amphora coffeaeformis and Navicula sp. strains 1 and D to adhere, inhibited motility, and caused agglutination and eventually diatom cell lysis. Diatoms could be protected from the negative effects of the bacterial spent medium if D-galactose or mannan was included in the incubation medium. The active principle of the spent medium is probably a lectin/agglutinin that is able to bind to the extracellular polymers of the diatoms that are involved in adhesion and motility. Awareness of interactions of this type is important in the study of natural biofilms.
ISSN:0099-2240
1098-5336
DOI:10.1128/AEM.71.1.428-435.2005