AIMS To develop a method to screen antifouling agents against marine bacterial adhesion as a sensitive, rapid and quantitative microplate fluorescent test. METHODS AND RESULTS Our experimental method is based on a natural biofilm formed by mono-incubation of the marine bacterium Pseudoalteromonas sp. D41 in sterile natural sea water in a 96-well polystyrene microplate. The 4'6-diamidino-2-phe...

Bacterial adhesion and the subsequent formation of biofilm are major concerns in biotechnology and medicine. The initial step in bacterial adhesion is the interaction of cells with a surface, a process governed by long-range forces, primarily van der Waals and electrostatic interactions. The precise manner in which the force of interaction is affected by cell surface components and by the physi...

Both proteins and polysaccharides are biopolymers present on a bacterial surface that can simultaneously affect bacterial adhesion. To better understand how the combined presence of proteins and polysaccharides might influence bacterial attachment, adhesion forces were examined using atomic force microscopy (AFM) between colloids (COOH- or protein-coated) and polymer-coated surfaces (BSA, lysoz...

Bacterial cellulose (BC) has become established as a remarkably versatile biomaterial and can be used in a wide variety of applied scientific applications, especially for medical devices. In this work, the bacterial cellulose fermentation process is modified by the addition of hyaluronic acid and gelatin (1% w/w) to the culture medium before the bacteria is inoculated. Hyaluronic acid and gelat...

Secondary and tertiary amino groups were introduced into polymer chains grafted onto a polyethylene flat-sheet membrane to evaluate the effects of surface properties on the adhesion and viability of a strain of the Gram-negative bacterium Escherichia coli and a strain of the Gram-positive bacterium Bacillus subtilis. The characterization of the surfaces containing amino groups, i.e. ethylamino ...

The heterogeneity in bacterial surface macromolecules was probed by examining individual macromolecules on the surface of Pseudomonas putida KT2442 via single-molecule force spectroscopy (SMFS). Using an atomic force microscope (AFM), the silicon nitride tip was brought into contact with biopolymer molecules on bacterial cells and these macromolecules were stretched. Force-extension measurement...

In this study, a strain of lactic acid bacteria Streptococcus salivarius was studied for its capacity to remove hexavalent chromium (Cr (VI)) from a liquid medium and to form biofilm. Both properties are useful for using the strain in bioremediation of metal-contaminated effluents. For biofilm formation capacity, three methods were used: the tube method (TM), the Congo red agar method (CRA) and...

It is extremely important to develop surfaces that prevent microbial adherence in biomedical applications such as implanted medical devices and this article addresses that issue. Bacterial adhesion to surfaces is very complex and there are a range of forces that govern this overall process. These issues are discussed and examined experimentally in this article. Silver has long been known to inh...

Bacterial surfaces contain proteins, polysaccharides, and other biopolymers that can affect their adhesion to another surface. To better understand the role of proteins in bacterial adhesion, the interactions between two different model colloids (glass beads and carboxylated latex microspheres) and four proteins covalently bonded to glass surfaces were examined using colloid probes and an atomi...