Matrix-trapped viruses can prevent invasion of bacterial biofilms by colonizing cells
- Dartmouth, United States
- Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Germany
- University of Basel, Switzerland
Abstract
Bacteriophages can be trapped in the matrix of bacterial biofilms, such that the cells inside them are protected. It is not known whether these phages are still infectious and whether they pose a threat to newly arriving bacteria. Here we address these questions using Escherichia coli and its lytic phage T7. Prior work has demonstrated that T7 phages are bound in the outermost curli polymer layers of the E. coli biofilm matrix. We show that these phages do remain viable and can kill colonizing cells that are T7-susceptible. If cells colonize a resident biofilm before phages do, we find that they can still be killed by phage exposure if it occurs soon thereafter. However, if colonizing cells are present on the biofilm long enough before phage exposure, they gain phage protection via envelopment within curli-producing clusters of the resident biofilm cells.
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Raw data for the entire study has been provided in the source data file with the re-submission
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Funding
National Science Foundation (MCB 1817342)
- Carey D Nadell
National Science Foundation (IOS 2017879)
- Carey D Nadell
National Institutes of Health (P30-DK117469)
- Carey D Nadell
National Institutes of Health (2R01AI081838)
- Carey D Nadell
Cystic Fibrosis Foundation (STANTO15RO)
- Carey D Nadell
National Institutes of Health (P20-GM113132)
- Carey D Nadell
Human Frontier Science Program (RGY0077/2020)
- Carey D Nadell
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2021, Bond et al.
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License permitting unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
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Matrix-trapped viruses can prevent invasion of bacterial biofilms by colonizing cells
eLife 10:e65355.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.65355
