Formation of bacterial streamers during filtration in microfluidic systems

Marty, A.; Roques, Christine; Causserand, Christel; Bacchin, Patrice

doi:10.1080/08927014.2012.695351

Cited by 45 publications

(70 citation statements)

References 24 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Other systems that suffer from biofilm-induced clogging are spiral-wound reverse osmosis filters (48,49), which are used, e.g., to purify drinking water. Feed spacer mesh, the element within these filtration devices that is prone to biofilm formation, also displays biofilm streamers that form a network (Fig.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biofilm streamers cause catastrophic disruption of flow with consequences for environmental and medical systems

Drescher

Shen

Bassler

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

306

396

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biofilms are antibiotic-resistant, sessile bacterial communities that occupy most moist surfaces on Earth and cause chronic and medical device-associated infections. Despite their importance, basic information about biofilm dynamics in common ecological environments is lacking. Here, we demonstrate that flow through soil-like porous materials, industrial filters, and medical stents dramatically modifies the morphology of Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms to form 3D streamers, which, over time, bridge the spaces between obstacles and corners in nonuniform environments. We discovered that accumulation of surface-attached biofilm has little effect on flow through such environments, whereas biofilm streamers cause sudden and rapid clogging. We demonstrate that flow-induced shedding of extracellular matrix from surface-attached biofilms generates a sievelike network that captures cells and other biomass, which add to the existing network, causing exponentially fast clogging independent of growth. These results suggest that biofilm streamers are ubiquitous in nature and strongly affect flow through porous materials in environmental, industrial, and medical systems.bioclogging | biofouling | porous media I n the laboratory, bacteria are usually grown as planktonic cells in shaken suspensions, which differs dramatically from the natural environments of most microbes. In their natural habitats, bacteria often live in biofilms (1-3), which are tightly packed, surface-associated assemblies of bacteria that are bound together by extracellular polymeric substances (4, 5). Although biofilms are desirable in waste-water treatment (6), biofilms primarily cause undesirable effects such as chronic infections or clogging of industrial flow systems (1-3). Cells in biofilms display many behavioral differences from planktonic cells, such as a 1,000-fold increase in tolerance to antibiotics (7,8), an altered transcriptome (9-11), and spatially heterogeneous metabolic activity (12, 13). Some of these physiological peculiarities of biofilm-dwelling cells may be due to strong gradients of nutrients and metabolites, which also affect biofilm morphology and composition (14, 15). However, little is known about how physical aspects of the environment affect biofilm dynamics.The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa has become a model organism for biofilm studies largely because it forms biofilms in diverse habitats, including soil, rivers, sewage, and medical devices in humans (1, 2, 16). Two features are common to all of these environments: First, the presence of rough surfaces, which at the microscopic level reduce to surfaces with many corners, and second, a pressure-driven flow. The standard assay for growing biofilms in the laboratory abstracts from these realistic environments by typically using a smooth surface as a substrate, and either no flow or a pump to force nutritious medium across the biofilm at a constant flow rate (17-19). These standard assays have enabled the identification of several genes involved in biofilm develo...

show abstract

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Biofilm streamers cause catastrophic disruption of flow with consequences for environmental and medical systems

Drescher

Shen

Bassler

et al. 2013

Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A.

306

396

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…They found that the streamers can form in curved sections of microchannels, and streamer morphology is related to motility. Recent research has demonstrated that streamers can have wide repercussions in various natural and artificial scenarios as they can act as precursors to the formation of mature structures in porous interfaces, lead to rapid and catastrophic biofilm proliferation in a biomedical systems, and also cause substantial flow-structure interactions, etc 1,[7][8][9] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Protocol for Biofilm Streamer Formation in a Microfluidic Device with Micro-pillars

Hassanpourfard

Sun

Valiei

et al. 2014

JoVE

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Several bacterial species possess the ability to attach to surfaces and colonize them in the form of thin films called biofilms. Biofilms that grow in porous media are relevant to several industrial and environmental processes such as wastewater treatment and CO 2 sequestration. We used Pseudomonas fluorescens, a Gram-negative aerobic bacterium, to investigate biofilm formation in a microfluidic device that mimics porous media. The microfluidic device consists of an array of micro-posts, which were fabricated using soft-lithography. Subsequently, biofilm formation in these devices with flow was investigated and we demonstrate the formation of filamentous biofilms known as streamers in our device. The detailed protocols for fabrication and assembly of microfluidic device are provided here along with the bacterial culture protocols. Detailed procedures for experimentation with the microfluidic device are also presented along with representative results. Video LinkThe video component of this article can be found at

show abstract

“…In particular, we found that biofilm streamers develop rapidly following inoculation and they span the gaps in a complex, branched channel. This example indicates that biofilm streamers might be universal in porous media in environmental and medical environments (48, 78-80), where they could cause rapid clogging.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 98%

Filaments in curved streamlines: rapid formation ofStaphylococcus aureusbiofilm streamers

Kim¹,

Drescher²,

Pak³

et al. 2014

New J. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Biofilms are surface-associated conglomerates of bacteria that are highly resistant to antibiotics. These bacterial communities can cause chronic infections in humans by colonizing, for example, medical implants, heart valves, or lungs. Staphylococcus aureus, a notorious human pathogen, causes some of the most common biofilm-related infections. Despite the clinical importance of S. aureus biofilms, it remains mostly unknown how physical effects, in particular flow, and surface structure influence biofilm dynamics. Here we use model microfluidic systems to investigate how environmental factors, such as surface geometry, surface chemistry, and fluid flow affect biofilm development in S. aureus. We discovered that S. aureus rapidly forms flow-induced, filamentous biofilm streamers, and furthermore if surfaces are coated with human blood plasma, streamers appear within minutes and clog the channels more rapidly than if the channels are uncoated. To understand how biofilm streamer filaments reorient in flows with curved streamlines to bridge the distances between corners, we developed a mathematical model based on resistive force theory of slender filaments. Understanding physical aspects of biofilm formation in S. aureus may lead to new approaches for interrupting biofilm formation of this pathogen.

show abstract

Formation of bacterial streamers during filtration in microfluidic systems

Cited by 45 publications

References 24 publications

Biofilm streamers cause catastrophic disruption of flow with consequences for environmental and medical systems

Biofilm streamers cause catastrophic disruption of flow with consequences for environmental and medical systems

Protocol for Biofilm Streamer Formation in a Microfluidic Device with Micro-pillars

Filaments in curved streamlines: rapid formation ofStaphylococcus aureusbiofilm streamers

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About