Calcium carbonate mineralization is essential for biofilm formation and lung colonization.

ABSTRACT: Biofilms are differentiated microbial communities held together by an extracellular matrix. μCT X-ray revealed structured mineralized areas within biofilms of lung pathogens belonging to two distant phyla - the proteobacteria Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the actinobacteria Mycobacterium abscessus. Furthermore, calcium chelation inhibited the assembly of complex bacterial structures for both organisms with little to no effect on cell growth. The molecular mechanisms promoting calcite scaffold formation were surprisingly conserved between the two pathogens as biofilm development was similarly impaired by genetic and biochemical inhibition of calcium uptake and carbonate accumulation. Moreover, chemical inhibition and mutations targeting mineralization significantly reduced the at

SUBMITTER: Cohen-Cymberknoh M 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9062676 | biostudies-literature | 2022 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature