en |
Early bacterial biofilm colonizers in the coastal waters of Mauritius
Rampadarath, Sillma; Bandhoa, Kushlata; Puchooa, Daneshwar; Jeewon, Rajesh & Bal, Subhasisa
Abstract
Background: The past years have witnessed a growing number of researches in biofilm forming communities due
to their environmental and maritime industrial implications. To gain a better understanding of the early bacterial
biofilm community, microfiber nets were used as artificial substrates and incubated for a period of 24 h in
Mauritian coastal waters. Next-generation sequencing technologies were employed as a tool for identification
of early bacterial communities. Different genes associated with quorum sensing and cell motility were further
investigated.
Results: Proteobacteria were identified as the predominant bacterial microorganisms in the biofilm within the
24 h incubation, of which members affiliated to Gammaproteobacteria, Alphaproteobacteria and
Betaproteobacteria were among the most abundant classes. The biofilm community patterns were also driven
by phyla such as Firmicutes, Bacteroidetes, Chloroflexi, Actinobacteria and Verrucomicrobia. The functional
analysis based on KEGG classification indicated high activities in carbohydrate, lipid and amino acids
metabolism. Different genes encoding for luxI, lasI, agrC, flhA, cheA and cheB showed the involvement of
microbial members in quorum sensing and cell motility.
Conclusion: This study provides both an insight on the early bacterial biofilm forming community and the genes
involved in quorum sensing and bacterial cell motility.
Keywords
Bacterial adhesion; Biofouling; Cell motility; Cell motility; Coastal waters; Functional metagenomics; Identification bacterial communities; Metatranscriptomic; Next-generation sequencing technologies; Proteobacteria; Quorum sensing
|