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Cellular chaining influences biofilm formation and structure in Group A Streptococcus

View ORCID ProfileArtur Matysik, Foo Kiong Ho, Alicia Qian Ler Tan, Anuradha Vajjala, View ORCID ProfileKimberly A. Kline
doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/831123
Artur Matysik
aSingapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637551
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  • ORCID record for Artur Matysik
Foo Kiong Ho
aSingapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637551
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Alicia Qian Ler Tan
aSingapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637551
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Anuradha Vajjala
aSingapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637551
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Kimberly A. Kline
aSingapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637551
bSchool of Biological Sciences, Nanyang Technological University, 60 Nanyang Dr, Singapore 637551
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  • For correspondence: kkline@ntu.edu.sg
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ABSTRACT

Group A Streptococcal (GAS) biofilm formation is an important pathological feature contributing to the antibiotic tolerance and progression of various GAS infections. Although a number of bacterial factors have been described to promote in vitro GAS biofilm formation, the relevance of in vitro biofilms to host-associated biofilms requires further understanding. In this study, we demonstrate how constituents of the host environment, such as lysozyme and NaCl, can modulate GAS bacterial chain length and, in turn, shape GAS biofilm morphology and structure. Disruption of GAS chains with lysozyme results in biofilms that are more stable. Based on confocal microscopy, we attribute the increase in biofilm stability to a dense and compact three-dimensional structure produced by de-chained cells. To show that changes in biofilm stability and structure are due to the shortening of bacterial chains and not specific to the activity of lysozyme, we demonstrate that augmented chaining induced by NaCl or deletion of the autolysin gene mur1.2 produced defects in biofilm formation characterized by a loose biofilm architecture. We conclude that GAS biofilm formation can be directly influenced by host and environmental factors through the modulation of bacterial chain lengths, potentially contributing to persistence and colonization within the host. Further studies of in vitro biofilm models incorporating physiological constituents such as lysozyme may uncover new insights into the physiology of in vivo GAS biofilms.

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The copyright holder for this preprint is the author/funder, who has granted bioRxiv a license to display the preprint in perpetuity. It is made available under a CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 International license.
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Posted November 05, 2019.
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Cellular chaining influences biofilm formation and structure in Group A Streptococcus
Artur Matysik, Foo Kiong Ho, Alicia Qian Ler Tan, Anuradha Vajjala, Kimberly A. Kline
bioRxiv 831123; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/831123
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Cellular chaining influences biofilm formation and structure in Group A Streptococcus
Artur Matysik, Foo Kiong Ho, Alicia Qian Ler Tan, Anuradha Vajjala, Kimberly A. Kline
bioRxiv 831123; doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/831123

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