Contribution of the Klebsiella pneumoniae capsule to bacterial aggregate and biofilm microstructures.

ABSTRACT: We studied the interaction between capsule production and hydrodynamic growth conditions on the internal and macroscopic structure of biofilms and spontaneously formed aggregates of Klebsiella pneumoniae. Wild-type and capsule-deficient strains were studied as biofilms and under strong and mild hydrodynamic conditions. Internal organization of multicellular structures was determined with a novel image-processing algorithm for feature extraction from high-resolution confocal microscopy. Measures included interbacterial spacing and local angular alignment of individual bacteria. Macroscopic organization was measured via the size distribution of aggregate populations forming under various conditions. Compared with wild-type organisms, unencapsulated mutant organisms formed more organized aggr

SUBMITTER: Dzul SP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3067277 | biostudies-literature | 2011 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature