BACKGROUND Staphylococcus aureus is associated with chronic mastitis in cattle, and disease manifestation is usually refractory to antibiotic therapy. Biofilm production is a key element of S. aureus pathogenesis and may contribute to the treatment failure that is consistently reported by veterinarians. Minas Gerais State is the largest milk-producing state in Brazil, and the characterization o...

Osmotic stress was found to induce biofilm formation in a Staphylococcus aureus mucosal isolate. Inactivation of a global regulator of the bacterial stress response, the alternative transcription factor sigma(B), resulted in a biofilm-negative phenotype and loss of salt-induced biofilm production. Complementation of the mutant strain with an expression plasmid encoding sigma(B) completely resto...

In enterobacteria, the CsgD protein activates production of two extracellular structures: thin aggregative fimbriae (curli) and cellulose. While curli fibres promote biofilm formation and cell aggregation, the evidence for a direct role of cellulose as an additional determinant for biofilm formation is not as straightforward. The MG1655 laboratory strain of Escherichia coli only produces limite...

Biological inhibition of air pollution has vast advantages over physicochemical methods. One of the biggest challenges faced by researchers with traditional bio-filter in controlling Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) such as Benzene, Toluene, Ethylbenzene, and Xylene (BTEX) is, low degradation rate (elimination capacity) and accumulation of very high biomass. The use of metabolic uncouplers...

Biofilm formation plays a key role in the life cycles and subsistence of many microorganisms. For the human fungal pathogen Candida albicans, biofilm development is arguably a virulence trait, because medical implants that serve as biofilm substrates are significant risk factors for infection. The development of C. albicans biofilms in vitro proceeds through an early phase, in which yeast cells...

Background and Objectives Staphylococcus epidermidis produces biofilm by extracellular polysaccharides, causing bacterial adherence to different surfaces. Anti-microbial effects of nickel nanoparticles on some bacterial strains such as S. aureus and Escherichia coli have been determined in limited studies. The aim of the present study is to examine the inhibitory effect of nickel nanoparticles ...

Synthesis of a polysaccharide adhesin by icaADBC-encoded enzymes is currently the best-understood mechanism of staphylococcal biofilm development. In four methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus isolates, environmental activation of icaADBC did not always correlate with increased biofilm production. Moreover, glucose-mediated biofilm development in these isolates was icaADBC independent. Ap...

Biofilm formation is a social behaviour that generates favourable conditions for sustained survival in the natural environment. For the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis the process involves the differentiation of cell fate within an isogenic population and the production of communal goods that form the biofilm matrix. Here we review recent progress in understanding the regulatory pathw...

In many bacteria, the ability to modulate biofilm production relies on specific signaling molecules that are either self-produced or made by neighboring microbes within the ecological niche. We analyzed the potential interspecies signaling effect of the Burkholderia diffusible signal factor (BDSF) on Francisella novicida, a model organism for Francisella tularensis, and demonstrated that BDSF b...

The mechanisms by which environmental carbon sources regulate biofilm formation are poorly understood. This study investigates the roles of glucose and the catabolite repression system in Serratia marcescens biofilm formation. The abilities of this opportunistic pathogen to proliferate in a wide range of environments, to cause disease, and to resist antimicrobials are linked to its ability to f...