Bacterial communities in the initial stage of marine biofilm formation on artificial surfaces

Abstract

Succession of bacterial communities during the first 36 h of biofilm formation in coastal water was investigated at 3 approximately 15 h intervals. Three kinds of surfaces (i.e., acryl, glass, and steel substratum) were submerged in situ at Sacheon harbor, Korea. Biofilms were harvested by scraping the surfaces, and the compositions of bacterial communities were analyzed by terminal restriction fragment length polymorphism (T-RFLP), and cloning and sequencing of 16S rRNA genes. While community structure based on T-RFLP analysis showed slight differences by substratum, dramatic changes were commonly observed for all substrata between 9 and 24 h. Identification of major populations by 16S rRNA gene sequences indicated that gamma-Proteobacteria (Pseudomonas, Acinetobacter, Alteromonas, and uncultured gamma-Proteobacteria) were predominant in the community during 0 approximately 9 h, while the ratio of alpha-Proteobacteria (Loktanella, Methylobacterium, Pelagibacter, and uncultured alpha-Proteobacteria) increased 2.6 approximately 4.8 folds during 24 approximately 36 h of the biofilm formation, emerging as the most predominant group. Previously, alpha-Proteobacteria were recognized as the pioneering organisms in marine biofilm formation. However, results of this study, which revealed the bacterial succession with finer temporal resolution, indicated some species of gamma-Proteobacteria were more important as the pioneering population. Measures to control pioneering activities of these species can be useful in prevention of marine biofilm formation.

Both Leaf Properties and Microbe-Microbe Interactions Influence Within-Species Variation in Bacterial Population Diversity and Structure in the Lettuce ( Lactuca Species) Phyllosphere

“…It is possible, however, that other, more subtle effects may have roles in determining phyllosphere population structure. Temporal succession patterns are known to occur in aquatic biofilm systems (24,27) and have been shown in the phyllosphere of the cottonwood (Populus deltoides) (39). Unlike the aquatic situations, where the biofilms were forming on abiotic surfaces, we have shown that phyllosphere populations are influenced by leaf characteristics.…”

Fluorescence-Based Quasicontinuous and In Situ Monitoring of Biofilm Formation Dynamics in Natural Marine Environments

“…Moreover, it has been shown that bacterial community composition and density of the surrounding water (24) play an important role for biofilm establishment. In this context, Dang and Lovell (25,26) demonstrated that the marine Rhodobacter group not only dominates early stages of biofilm formation on artificial surfaces but also is highly abundant as a potential surface colonizer in coastal seawater all year round (27).…”

Succession of bacterial community structure during the early stage of biofilm development in the Antarctic marine environment

“…On the other hand, biofilms can be detrimental to the surfaces of man-made structures such as ships and bridges in aquatic environments (Gaylarde and Morton, 1999;Dang and Lovell, 2000;Flemming, 2002). Due to such profound importance of biofilms in ecology and industry, many studies have been performed on the bacterial communities, developmental processes, and physiology of biofilms in various aquatic environments, and methods to control biofilm formation have been developed (Gaylarde and Morton, 1999;Dang and Lovell, 2000;Armstrong et al, 2001;Molin and Tolker-Nielsen, 2003;Jones et al, 2007;Egan et al, 2008;Lee et al, 2008).…”

“…In addition, investigating the composition and diversity of early microbial colonizers during biofilm formation in natural marine environments of Antarctica is challenging due to the practical problem of conducting experiment in cold environments. Previous studies on microbial community changes during biofilm development had been performed in natural environments of temperate areas by using fingerprinting techniques (Moss et al, 2006;Jones et al, 2007;Lee et al, 2008;Pohlon et al, 2010;Salta et al, 2013), which suffer from a low taxonomic resolution. Thus, application of next-generation sequencing technology that allows the better characterization of the unseen realm is required for the analysis of unexplored bacterial community of biofilm formed in Antarctic marine environments.…”

“…Adsorption of dissolved organic molecules and primary colonization of free-living bacteria on the surface trigger the accumulation of bacteria through growth and reproduction, which modifies the characteristics of the surface and renders it suitable for subsequent colonization by secondary microorganisms (Dang and Lovell, 2000). The primary biofilm community is formed through specific and/or nonspecific interaction between initial colonizer and planktonic bacteria and different pioneer microorganisms contribute to biofilm formation in different environments (Dang and Lovell, 2000;Lee et al, 2008). Biofilm maturation proceeds by synergistic and/or competitive interactions among colonized species, as well as through recruitment of new species and/or loss of colonized species (Dang and Lovell, 2000).…”