Surface hydrophilicity promotes bacterial twitching motility.

ABSTRACT: Twitching motility is a form of bacterial surface translocation powered by the type IV pilus (T4P). It is frequently analyzed by interstitial colony expansion between agar and the polystyrene surfaces of petri dishes. In such assays, the twitching motility of Acinetobacter nosocomialis was observed with MacConkey but not Luria-Bertani (LB) agar media. One difference between these two media is the presence of bile salts as a selective agent in MacConkey but not in LB. Here, we demonstrate that the addition of bile salts to LB allowed A. nosocomialis to display twitching. Similarly, bile salts enhanced the twitching of Acinetobacter baumannii and Pseudomonas aeruginosa in LB. These observations suggest that there is a common mechanism, whereby bile salts enhance b

SUBMITTER: O'Hara MT 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11423576 | biostudies-literature | 2024 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature