Battling biofilms - understanding how novel genes impact biofilm formation

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Most bacteria in nature exist in communities adhered to surfaces or each other known as biofilms. Bacterial biofilms are crucial to health and most chronic infections include a biofilm component. We also use biofilms in various industrial processes. Given their importance it is very important to understand how biofilms form and can be modified to develop new ways to prevent infections or improve biotechnological processes. We recently identified all the genes needed by two important pathogens, E. coli and Salmonella to form biofilms over time - this identified a wide range of genes including some not previously known to have a role in biofilm formation. This included MaoP, a protein known to have a role in chromosome segregation but not biofilm formation. Deletion of MaoP results in a large reduction in biofilm formation in both species studied with reduced production of biofilm matrix components. This project aims to identify how MaoP affects biofilm formation using a mixture of microbiology, genetics, biochemistry and informatics. It will then explore how MaoP could be exploited to modify biofilm formation.