The Influence of Biofilms in the Biology of Plasmids

Abstract

The field of plasmid biology has historically focused on bacteria growing in liquid culture. Surface attached communities of bacterial biofilms have recently been understood to be the normal environment of bacteria in the natural world. Thus, studies examining plasmid replication, maintenance, and transfer in biofilms are essential for a true understanding of bacterial plasmid biology. This chapter reviews the current knowledge of the interplay between bacterial biofilms and plasmids, focusing on the role of plasmids in biofilm development and the role of biofilms in plasmid maintenance, copy number control, and transfer. The studies examined herein highlight the importance of biofilms as an important ecological niche in which bacterial plasmids play an essential role.

Non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals enhance the transmission of exogenous antibiotic resistance genes through bacterial transformation

“…A possibility here is that the non-antibiotic pharmaceuticals stimulated the TonB activity to promote cell adhesion. As bacterial competence and biofilm development are mediated and regulated by many of the same gene products [ 77 ], we propose here that TonB-related upregulation also contributes to the enhanced transformation.…”

Bacillus cereus Biofilms—Same, Only Different

“…Plasmids were shown to be involved in biofilm formation in a variety of Gram-negative and Gram-positive bacterial species (Cook and Dunny, 2014 ), through conjugative (Ghigo, 2001 ) as well as Non-conjugative mechanisms, and, conversely, biofilms were reported to favor plasmids transfer, resulting in an increase of genetic exchange between bacteria, including antibiotic resistance genes (Van Meervenne et al, 2014 ). Plasmids are present in all B. cereus, B. thuringiensis and B. anthracis strains, in number, not including copies, ranging from 1 to 13, and in size ranging from 2 to almost 500 kb (Rasko et al, 2005 ; Reyes-Ramirez and Ibarra, 2008 ).…”

Evaluating disinfectant efficacy on mixed biofilms comprising Shiga toxigenic Escherichia coli, lactic acid bacteria, and spoilage microorganisms

“…All the tested STEC strains also harbored the genes responsible for colonic acid production, which confers structural integrity to biofilms ( Prigent-Combaret et al, 2000 ). Plasmids can also play a significant role in biofilm formation as they can carry genes encoding for adhesins, EPS production, and other factors that promote biofilm formation ( Cook and Dunny, 2014 ). The strong biofilm formers, R508 and O103, both possessed IncI-1 plasmids, but it is unclear if they had a role in biofilm formation.…”