Thread by @biofilmbiol, A thread on our lab’s @BiotechSASTRA1 @SastraUniv new paper along with @sandeep09201 [...]

A thread

https://abs.twimg.com/emoji/v2/... draggable="false" alt="👇" title="Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten" aria-label="Emoji: Rückhand Zeigefinger nach unten"> on our lab’s @BiotechSASTRA1 @SastraUniv new paper along with @sandeep09201 @I_am_Veena and Chandramohan, published in FEMS Microbiology Ecology @FEMSmicro on #BacterialBiofilms
@IndiaBiofilms

https://academic.oup.com/femsec/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/femsec/fiaa214/5924450">https://academic.oup.com/femsec/ad...

As this is the month when many people do sketches of diverse topics, and participate in #inktober, we thought to narrate the story of our #ResearchPaper with sketches made by some of our past and present students to celebrate the #publication

Uropathogenic E. coli (UPEC) forms #biofilm during infection (and perhaps it also lives in biofilm in non-host conditions).

Illustration by Jeroline Mary @JerolineMary who was doing a wonderful work on biofilm flocs in wastewater in our lab for her UG project

#BiofilmMatrix holds the cells together in the biofilm, devoid of which the biofilm weakens. In an earlier study, we had showed that #Salmonella #matrix can act as public good, and when matrix-non-producers infiltrate, it could weaken the pellicle biofilm. https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2015.01468/full">https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/...

Infiltration of Matrix-Non-producers Weakens the Salmonella Biofilm and Impairs Its Antimicrobial...

Bacterial biofilms display a collective lifestyle, wherein the cells secrete extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) that helps in adhesion, aggregation, stability, and to protect the bacteria from...

https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmicb.2015.01468/full

We exploited a simple Congo red agar method to screen bacteria from wastewater soil that could inhibit UPEC matrix. This simple method facilitated us to design a high-throughput screening protocol to isolate matrix inhibitors.

This chapter describes the congo red agar method.
https://link.springer.com/protocol/10.1007/978-1-4939-7240-1_11

Illustration">https://link.springer.com/protocol/... by our recently passed out MTech project student, Ponmani Varuna, who was working on UPEC heterogeneity @Varuna54321

This chapter describes the congo red agar method. https://link.springer.com/protocol/... by our recently passed out MTech project student, Ponmani Varuna, who was working on UPEC heterogeneity @Varuna54321

We identified the bacterial isolates that could inhibit UPEC matrix production. Interestingly they all belonged to Enterobacteriaceae family, which have an ecological overlap.

Illustration by Preethy, a PhD student is @SastraUniv. She works on Bone Biology

We then performed competition experiments between the UPEC and the bacterial isolates in planktonic and biofilm growth

Illustration by Kavi Bharathi @I_amkavi11, my PhD student and an active supporter of our lab’s endeavour

Competition is categorized as exploitative and interference competition.
@saramitri discusses microbial competition nicely in this review
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0966842X16300749

Illustration">https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/a... by Kavi Bharathi @I_amkavi11

The results of competition experiments were remarkably interesting, where we observed mutual inhibition.
A #Battlefield

Illustration by Jeroline Mary @JerolineMary

During biofilm formation, all combinations showed reduction in productivity and fitness, as compared to planktonic growth.
Isn& #39;t it like the territorial fights between higher animal groups? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ3pLY819hA">https://www.youtube.com/watch...

We further selected an isolate identified as Salmonella and competed against UPEC in the biofilm. Microscopic analysis revealed that matrix inhibition led to competitive exclusion of UPEC.

Illustration of #CompetitiveExclusion by Kavi Bharathi @I_amkavi11

It was a smart strategy by Salmonella, a kind of benign interference competition to colonize surface by matrix inhibition.
#Biofilms are a great fun to work @akos @IndiaBiofilms @KaushikLab @atVidu @ukbiofilms @woundman

We greatly acknowledge the funding from @serbonline and @SastraUniv for infrastructural facilities to carry out this work.

Also, the manuscript was substantially improved due to the super editorial by @RolfsMicrobes and the anonymous reviewers.
The discussions with @iamsamayp , @nonresidentdesi , @vraman16 , and @sureshnambeesan was fun.

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