Putative surface proteins encoded within a novel transferable locus confer a high-biofilm phenotype to Enterococcus faecalis.

ABSTRACT: Enterococci are opportunistic pathogens and among the leading causes of nosocomial infections. Enterococcus faecalis, the dominant species among infection-derived isolates, has recently been recognized as capable of forming biofilms on abiotic surfaces in vitro as well as on indwelling medical devices. A few bacterial factors known to contribute to biofilm formation in E. faecalis have been characterized. To identify additional factors which may be important to this process, we utilized a Tn917-based insertional mutagenesis strategy to generate a mutant bank in a high-biofilm-forming E. faecalis strain, E99. The resulting mutant bank was screened for mutants exhibiting a significantly reduced ability to form biofilms. One mutant, P101D12, which showed greater than 70% reduction in its abil

SUBMITTER: Tendolkar PM 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC1428127 | biostudies-literature | 2006 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature