Substrate stiffness impacts early biofilm formation by modulating Pseudomonas aeruginosa twitching motility
- Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, France
- ENS de Lyon, CNRS, France
- ENS de Lyon,CNRS, France
Abstract
Surface-associated lifestyles dominate in the bacterial world. Large multicellular assemblies, called biofilms, are essential to the survival of bacteria in harsh environments, and are closely linked to antibiotic resistance in pathogenic strains. Biofilms stem from the surface colonization of a wide variety of substrates encountered by bacteria, from living tissues to inert materials. Here, we demonstrate experimentally that the promiscuous opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa explores substrates differently based on their rigidity, leading to striking variations in biofilm structure, exopolysaccharides (EPS) distribution, strain mixing during co-colonization and phenotypic expression. Using simple kinetic models, we show that these phenotypes arise through a mechanical interaction between the elasticity of the substrate and the type IV pilus (T4P) machinery, that mediates the surface-based motility called twitching. Together, our findings reveal a new role for substrate softness in the spatial organization of bacteria in complex microenvironments, with far-reaching consequences on efficient biofilm formation.
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Figure 2 - Source Data and Figure 3 - Source Data contain the numerical data used to generate the figures.
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Author details
Funding
Agence Nationale de la Recherche (ANR-19-CE42-0010)
- Delphine Débarre
Labex Tec21 (ANR-11-LABX-0030)
- Lionel Bureau
- Karin John
- Delphine Débarre
- Sigolene Lecuyer
The funders had no role in study design, data collection and interpretation, or the decision to submit the work for publication.
Copyright
© 2023, Gomez 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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Substrate stiffness impacts early biofilm formation by modulating Pseudomonas aeruginosa twitching motility
eLife 12:e81112.
https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.81112
