Author URLs
Lyme Disease Research Group at the University of New Haven
UNH Lyme Disease Facebook Group Page
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
10-2012
Subject: LCSH
Lyme disease
Disciplines
Biology | Physics
Abstract
Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, has long been known to be capable of forming aggregates and colonies. It was recently demonstrated that Borrelia burgdorferi aggregate formation dramatically changes the in vitro response to hostile environments by this pathogen. In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that these aggregates are indeed biofilms, structures whose resistance to unfavorable conditions are well documented. We studied Borrelia burgdorferi for several known hallmark features of biofilm, including structural rearrangements in the aggregates, variations in development on various substrate matrices and secretion of a protective extracellular polymeric substance (EPS) matrix using several modes of microscopic, cell and molecular biology techniques. The atomic force microscopic results provided evidence that multilevel rearrangements take place at different stages of aggregate development, producing a complex, continuously rearranging structure. Our results also demonstrated that Borrelia burgdorferi is capable of developing aggregates on different abiotic and biotic substrates, and is also capable of forming floating aggregates. Analyzing the extracellular substance of the aggregates for potential exopolysaccharides revealed the existence of both sulfated and non-sulfated/carboxylated substrates, predominately composed of an alginate with calcium and extracellular DNA present. In summary, we have found substantial evidence that Borrelia burgdorferi is capable of forming biofilm in vitro. Biofilm formation by Borrelia species might play an important role in their survival in diverse environmental conditions by providing refuge to individual cells.
DOI
10.1371/journal.pone.0048277
Repository Citation
Sapi, Eva; Bastian, Scott L.; Mpoy, Cedric L.; Scott, Shernea; Rattelle, Amy; Pabbati, Namrata; Poruri, Akhila; Burugu, Divya; Theophilus, Priyanka A.; Pham, Truc V.; Datar, Akshita; Dhaliwal, Navroop K.; MacDonald, Alan; Rossi, Michael J.; Sinha, Saion K.; and Luecke, David F., "Characterization of Biofilm Formation by Borrelia burgdorferi In Vitro" (2012). Biology and Environmental Science Faculty Publications. 1.
https://digitalcommons.newhaven.edu/biology-facpubs/1
Publisher Citation
Sapi E., Bastian S.L., Mpoy, C.M., Scott S., Rattelle A., et al. (2012) Characterization of Biofilm Formation by Borrelia burgdorferi In Vitro. PLoS ONE 7(10): e48277. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0048277
Comments
This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use provided the original author and source are credited.