DARTMOUTH COL COBRE: P1: REGULATION OF BIOFILM DEVELOPMENT ON EPITHELIAL CELLS

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This subproject is one of many research subprojects utilizing the resources provided by a Center grant funded by NIH/NCRR. The subproject and investigator (PI) may have received primary funding from another NIH source, and thus could be represented in other CRISP entries. The institution listed is for the Center, which is not necessarily the institution for the investigator. Biofilms are surface-attached microbial communities found in clinical, industrial and natural environments. Numerous studies suggest that biofilm bacteria can be distinguished from their planktonic counterparts in terms of morphology and physiology, and also differ in gene and protein expression profiles. We have proposed that the formation of biofilms is a well-regulated developmental system. If biofilm formation is analogous to other developmental systems we hypothesize that there should be distinct regulatory pathways that control the transition between planktonic and biofilm growth, and this regulatory cascade should be controlled in response to environmental signals. In the original proposal we described studies of the SadARS three-component regulatory system. We have reported those studies previously. We have extended this work to include several other genes with key roles in early biofilm development, including SadC and BifA. Our progress on these newly discovered genes is outlined below.