A Genome-wide Approach to Identify the Genes Involved in Biofilm Formation in E. coli

Biofilm forming cells are distinctive from the well-investigated planktonic cells and exhibit a different type of gene expression. Several new Escherichia coli genes related to biofilm formation have recently been identified through genomic approaches such as DNA microarray analysis. However, many others involved in this process might have escaped detection due to poor expression, regulatory mechanism, or genetic backgrounds. Here, we screened a collection of single-gene deletion mutants of E. coli named 'Keio collection' to identify genes required for biofilm formation. Of the 3985 mutants of non-essential genes in the collection thus examined, 110 showed a reduction in biofilm formation nine of which have not been well characterized yet. Systematic and quantitative analysis revealed the involvement of genes of various functions and reinforced the importance in biofilm formation of the genes for cell surface structures and cell membrane. Characterization of the nine mutants of function-unknown genes indicated that some of them, such as yfgA that genetically interacts with a periplasmic chaperone gene surA together with yciB and yciM, might be required for the integrity of outer membrane.