Quantitative AFM Investigations of Adhesion of a Planktonic Bacterial Predator to Biofilm Prey

项目摘要 细菌在包括人体组织在内的表面定居，是复杂和有结构的 被称为生物膜的社区。因此，细菌生物膜会影响人类健康。一些人 生物膜是致病的，因为生物膜中的细菌可以是表型和 在新陈代谢方面，它们与浮游、自由游泳的近亲不同，它们很难 用常规手段控制或根除。因此，持续的慢性感染来自 生物被膜是一个严重的问题，大约三分之二的感染是由 发达国家的医生(Costerton JW，Stewart PS，Greenberg EP.细菌生物膜： 这是持续感染的常见原因。科学。1999年；284：1318-1322)。细菌 研究表明，捕食者细小芽孢杆菌强烈地消耗细菌生物膜，以及 因此有望成为一种潜在的生物膜控制剂。但是，了解以下内容非常重要 捕食者如何区分猎物和非猎物细胞的分子水平。自从B. 细菌对真核生物无害，是人类微生物群的成员，两者都是 这些实验产生的具体和一般的生物化学知识可能会导致新的， 控制革兰氏阴性细菌生物被膜的创新方法。拟议的实验使用 非致病性但有近亲导致人类 致病性。此外，鉴于没有公认的对细菌性假单胞菌的遗传抗性 在首次发表关于这种细菌捕食者的论文后的53年里发现了这种药物- 影响人类健康的抗药性和致病菌株(例如，受污染的关节植入物， 囊性纤维化患者肺部的生物膜、皮肤感染)是最相关的 建议的研究成果的应用。

Project Summary Bacteria colonize surfaces, including the tissues of the human body, as complex and structured communities called biofilms. As a result, bacterial biofilms influence human health. Some biofilms are pathogenic, and because the bacteria in biofilms can be phenotypically and metabolically distinct from their planktonic, free-swimming cousins, they can be difficult to control or eradicate using conventional means. As a result, persistent chronic infection from biofilms represents a serious problem that characterizes about two-thirds of infections treated by physicians in the developed world (Costerton JW, Stewart PS, Greenberg EP. Bacterial biofilms: A common cause of persistent infections. Science. 1999;284:1318–1322). The bacterial predator Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus has been shown to consume bacterial biofilms robustly, and thus holds promise as a potential biofilm control agent. However, it is critical to understand at the molecular level how the predator differentiates between prey and non-prey cells. Since B. bacteriovorus is harmless to eukaryotes and is member of the human microbiome, both the specific and general biochemical knowledge produced by these experiments may lead to new, innovative means to control Gram-negative bacterial biofilms. The proposed experiments use model organisms that are nonpathogenic but that have close relatives that cause human pathogenicity. Moreover, given that no conferred genetic resistance to B. bacteriovorus has been found in the 53 years since the first published paper on this bacterial predator, drug- resistant and pathogenic strains affecting human health (e.g., contaminated joint implants, biofilms in the lungs of cystic fibrosis patients, skin infections) are among the most relevant applications of the proposed research findings.