Microbial adhesion to hydrocarbons: twenty-five years of doing MATH

Abstract

Twenty-five years ago this past autumn, we published a short article entitled 'Adherence of bacteria to hydrocarbons: a simple method for measuring cell-surface hydrophobicity' in Volume 9 of FEMS Microbiology Letters. Together with my Ph.D. supervisors, Eugene Rosenberg and David Gutnick, we proposed a method of measuring bacterial cell surface hydrophobicity based on bacterial adherence to hydrocarbon ('BATH', later known as 'MATH', for microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon). The method became popular soon after it was published, and the paper was, for at least the following decade, the Journal's most cited article. It became an ISI 'citation classic' in 1991. This minireview is a rather personal look at the development of the method and its various modifications and other scientific offspring, with the perspective of a quarter-century.

Flocculation in ale brewing strains of Saccharomyces cerevisiae: re-evaluation of the role of cell surface charge and hydrophobicity

“…1a-c). CSH was evaluated by the MATH assay, which is based on the microbial adhesion to liquid hydrocarbons (Rosenberg 2006); a high affinity to nonpolar solvents (such as nhexadecane) indicates a high CSH and vice versa. The cells of the constitutively flocculent strain (S646-1B) were less Fig.…”

“…Cell surface hydrophobicity was determined using microbial adhesion to hydrocarbon (MATH) test (Rosenberg 2006). Thus, cells were suspended in phosphate, urea, magnesium (PUM) buffer (pH 7.1), at 5×10 6 cells/ml.…”

Medical biofilms

“…The body typically reacts to biomedical devices by coating them with a film consisting of proteins and glycoproteins, such as fibronectin, vitronectin, fibrinogen, albumin, and immunoglobulins, many of which serve as binding ligands to receptors on colonizing bacteria or incoming mammalian cells. Regardless of what material (e.g., glass, ceramic, titanium, polyether urethane) is employed, the surface chemistry is instantly altered by macromolecule adsorption (Rosenberg, 2006;Strevett and Chen, 2003;Verran and Whitehead, 2005;Yongsunthon and Lower, 2006). Biofilm formation continues with the transport of cells to the substratum:liquid interface, which is governed by a combination of transport mechanisms (i.e., diffusion, convection, sedimentation, and motility) (Bryers, 2000).…”

Biosurfactants and Bioemulsifiers Biomedical and Related Applications – Present Status and Future Potentials

“…2. ) (Neu, 1996;Rosenberg, 2006;Rosenberg & Ron, 1997;Smyth et al, 2010aSmyth et al, , 2010c. The most studied low-molecular-weight biosurfactant compounds are lipopeptides and glycolipids.…”