Spo0A is essential for biofilm formation and swarming motility in the naerobic pathogen Clostridium perfringens

ROBERTO RICARDO GRAU; MENDEZ, M.; SARKER, M.

Viena

Congreso; 11th International Congress on Microbial Ecology; 2006

Spo0A IS ESSENTIAL FOR BIOFILM FORMATION AND SWARMING MOTILITY IN THE ANAEROBIC PATHOGEN CLOSTRIDIUM PERFRINGENS     I-Hsiu Huang1,2, Marcelo M¨¦ndez3, Deepa Raju1,2, Roberto Grau3 , and Mahfuzur R. Sarker1,2*   1Department of Biomedical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, 28 Department of Microbiology, College of Science, Oregon State University, Corvallis, OR 97331; and 3 Departamento de Microbiolog¨ªa, Facultad de Ciencias Bioqu¨ªmicas y Farmac¨¦uticas e Instituto de Biolog¨ªa Molecular y Celular de Rosario, Rosario-Argentina.   Enterotoxigenic isolates of the anaerobic spore-forming bacterium Clostridium perfringens are important cause of food poisoning and non-food borne gastrointestinal diseases (GI). C. perfringens SM101 is able to make spores and therefore it is proficient in the production of the master regulatory protein Spo0A. This protein is a key regulator of biofilm formation in spore-forming Bacillus subtilis.  First, we analyzed the ability of the SM101 strain to adhere to an abiotic surface (glass) as an approximation of the ability of this virulent strain to form a biofilm on biotic surfaces. We used violet crystal to quantify the adhered cells. To investigate whether C. perfringens is capable of swarming motility, 5¦Ìl overnight cultures of the analyzed C. perfringens strains were incubated on plate at 37¡ãC under anaerobic condition. We noted that swarming motility was only efficiently manifested at an agar concentration of 0.7%. The current study reports that C. perfringens wild-type isolates have the ability to exhibit biofilm formation and swarming motility. Moreover, these social behaviors are under the control of the master regulatory protein Spo0A, as demonstrated by the observation that C. perfringens spo0A mutant was unable to exhibit biofilm formation and swarming motility, and these effects could be fully restored by complementing the spo0A mutant with wild-type spo0A. This study opens a new avenue of research to understand (and to interfere) the ecology and physiological regulation of C. perfringens diseases.