Asymmetry and Inequity in the Inheritance of a Bacterial Adhesive

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dc.contributor.utaustinauthorGordon, Vernita D.
dc.creatorCooley, Benjamin J.
dc.creatorDellos-Nolan, Sheri
dc.creatorDhamani, Numa
dc.creatorTodd, Ross
dc.creatorWaller, William
dc.creatorWozniak, Daniel
dc.creatorGordon, Vernita D.
dc.date.accessioned2016-07-07T16:49:17Z
dc.date.available2016-07-07T16:49:17Z
dc.date.issued2016-04en
dc.description.abstractPseudomonas aeruginosa is an opportunistic human pathogen that forms biofilm infections in a wide variety of contexts. Biofilms initiate when bacteria attach to a surface, which triggers changes in gene expression leading to the biofilm phenotype.Wehave previously shown, for the P. aeruginosa lab strain PAO1, that the self-produced polymer Psl is the most dominant adhesive for attachment to the surface but that another self-produced polymer, Pel, controls the geometry of attachment of these rod-shaped bacteria—strains that make Psl but not Pel are permanently attached to the surface but adhere at only one end (tilting up off the surface), whereas wild-type bacteria that make both Psl and Pel are permanently attached and lie down flat with very little or no tilting (Cooley et al 2013 Soft Matter 9 3871–6). Here we show that the change in attachment geometry reflects a change in the distribution of Psl on the bacterial cell surface. Bacteria that make Psl and Pel have Psl evenly coating the surface, whereas bacteria that make only Psl have Psl concentrated at only one end.Weshow that Psl can act as an inheritable, epigenetic factor. Rod-shaped P. aeruginosa grows lengthwise and divides across the middle.Wefind that asymmetry in the distribution of Psl on a parent cell is reflected in asymmetry between siblings in their attachment to the surface. Thus, Pel not only promotes P. aeruginosa lying downen_US
dc.description.departmentCenter for Nonlinear Dynamicsen_US
dc.description.sponsorshipWe thank Professor Matthew Parsek (University of Washington, Seattle) for his generous gift of bacterial PAO1 strains.Wealso thank Professor Marvin Whiteley (University of Texas at Austin) forWTandΔpsl polysaccharide preparations. SIM imaging (for figure 1) was performed in the Microscopy Core Facility within the Institute for Cellular and Molecular Biology atUTAustin, with the assistance of Julie Hayes. This work was funded by startup funds fromUTAustin and a gift from ExxonMobil to VDG, and by a grant from the Human Frontiers Science Program (HFSP RGY0081/2012-GORDON).en_US
dc.identifierdoi:10.15781/T2057CS47
dc.identifier.citationCooley, Benjamin J., Sheri Dellos-Nolan, Numa Dhamani, Ross Todd, William Waller, Daniel Wozniak, and Vernita D. Gordon. "Asymmetry and inequity in the inheritance of a bacterial adhesive." New Journal of Physics 18, no. 4 (2016): 045019.en_US
dc.identifier.doi10.1088/1367-2630/18/4/045019
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/2152/39038
dc.language.isoengen_US
dc.publisherNew Journal of Physicsen_US
dc.relation.ispartofUT Faculty/Researcher Worksen_US
dc.rightsCreative Commons Attribution 3.0
dc.rights.restrictionOpenen_US
dc.subjectPseudomonas aeruginosaen_US
dc.subjectbiofilmen_US
dc.subjectextracellular polymersen_US
dc.titleAsymmetry and Inequity in the Inheritance of a Bacterial Adhesiveen_US
dc.typeArticleen_US

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