Influence of calcium and other cations on surface adhesion of bacteria and diatoms: A review

Abstract

Association with a surface is an important aspect of survival for microorganisms in natural and manmade environments/Both bacteria and diatoms are involved in such associations. In many cases, this leads to surface fouling, which often results in surface deterioration and mechanical failure in industrial systems. We now know that microorganisms exploit many strategies to establish associations with surfaces. As in the case of other cellular processes, calcium ions seem to play an important role in adhesion of cells to surfaces. Calcium is involved in non-specific interactions such as neutralization of the electrical double layer between cell and substratum surface as well as specific adhesive interactions that cannot be replaced by other cations. The unique properties of calcium ions promote both specific and non-specific interactions with protein and polysaccha-ride adhesin molecules at the cell surface. As important, but less well understood, calcium ions also influence the way microbial cells interact with different substrata.

Large-scale environmental controls on microbial biofilms in high-alpine streams

“…Tscherko et al, 2003). These findings also support other reports on soils as DOC sources and longitudinal shifts in DOC chemistry in alpine catchments (e.g., Boyer et al, 1997;Hood et al, 2003).…”

“…Our data now expand this view by showing that DOC (fulvic acids) from these cold habitats adds to the complexity of high-alpine streams. Yet care should be taken in interpreting yields from end-member mixing analyses because they are based on the assumption that the fluorescence index can be used quantitatively (Hood et al, 2003). Nevertheless, the spatial pattern of our estimates agrees with the chronosequence of revegetation and soil build-up from the glacier forefield with almost barren recent glacial sediments to the downstream peat deposit, and with the soil organic carbon contents along this gradient (cf.…”

“…Notably calcium and magnesium are well known to enhance bacterial adhesion to substrates and to influence the tertiary structure of microbial exopolysaccharides (e.g. Geesey et al, 2001). We thus suspect that the copious production of exopolysaccharides during recession and early winter flow is supported by the high availability of calcium and magnesium.…”

“…Despite the awareness that alpine aquatic ecosystems are particularly prone to climate change (Chapin and Körner, 1994;McGregor et al, 1995), the response of this predictable seasonal variation to global warming and its consequences for community and ecosystem ecology remain poorly understood. While considerable effort has addressed the influence of glacial dynamics on algal and especially macroinvertebrate communities (Hieber et al, 2001;Peterson et al, 2001;Füreder et al, 2001;Burgherr et al, 2002), virtually nothing is known on the microbial ecology of alpine streams (Battin et al, 2001;Logue et al, 2004). The central objective of the present paper is to study the variability of stream microbial biofilms within a glacial floodplain and to assess the influence of glacial ablation and snowmelt as major hydrologic factors determining the physical template for stream biofilms.…”

Calcium is required for ixotrophy of Aureispira sp. CCB-QB1

“…The role of repulsive forces between negatively charged bacterial cells or between the cells and solid surface (i.e. a tissue culture well) has been described (Geesey et al, 2000).…”