Extracellular polymeric substance analysis of E. coli biofilm exposed to D-ribose
Location
CELA & Mary Church Terrell Library, First Floor
Document Type
Poster - Open Access
Start Date
4-25-2025 12:00 PM
End Date
4-25-2025 2:00 PM
Research Program
Corporation for Science Advancement Cottrell Scholar Award
The National Science Foundation (MCB-2226953)
Abstract
Bacterial biofilms are complex communities of microorganisms that adhere to surfaces and encase themselves in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Antibiotic resistance, which is heightened for bacteria in their sedentary, biofilm state, has limited the use of current antibiotics. If biofilm formation is interrupted, bacteria remain in their more vulnerable planktonic state, which is more responsive to antibiotic treatment. Therefore, we want to understand how we can disrupt biofilm formation and maturation. Our laboratory has demonstrated that sugars differentially remodel the bacterial transcriptome to influence biofilm growth and the composition of the extracellular substances surrounding cells in the biofilm. We have initially found that D-ribose, a common pentose, significantly increases the biofilm production of PHL628 E. coli. We are interested in how the composition of biofilm, namely the EPS surrounding biofilm cells, changes with the addition of ribose. We extracted the EPS of biofilms grown at different experimental conditions to analyze the matrix of carbohydrates and proteins produced by E. coli. Using UV-visible spectroscopy and confocal microscopy, we compared the concentration of carbohydrates and proteins between samples of biofilm grown with and without the introduction of ribose. We found that ribose increased both carbohydrate and protein production statistically significantly, suggesting that ribose increases E. coli’s ability to envelop themselves in biofilm, increasing their potential for antibiotic resistance. We found through disk diffusion assays that ribose changes the susceptibility of E. coli to certain antibiotics. Future work will use liquid chromatography and immunoblotting to identify the specific EPS components increased by ribose, providing insight into potential strategies for disrupting biofilm-mediated antibiotic resistance.
Keywords:
Biofilm, EPS, SDS-PAGE, qPCR
Recommended Citation
Bader, Justin; Moppel, Isabella J.; and Ryno, Lisa M., "Extracellular polymeric substance analysis of E. coli biofilm exposed to D-ribose" (2025). Research Symposium. 3.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/researchsymp/2025/posters/3
Major
Biology
Project Mentor(s)
Lisa Ryno, Chemistry and Biochemistry
2025
Extracellular polymeric substance analysis of E. coli biofilm exposed to D-ribose
CELA & Mary Church Terrell Library, First Floor
Bacterial biofilms are complex communities of microorganisms that adhere to surfaces and encase themselves in extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). Antibiotic resistance, which is heightened for bacteria in their sedentary, biofilm state, has limited the use of current antibiotics. If biofilm formation is interrupted, bacteria remain in their more vulnerable planktonic state, which is more responsive to antibiotic treatment. Therefore, we want to understand how we can disrupt biofilm formation and maturation. Our laboratory has demonstrated that sugars differentially remodel the bacterial transcriptome to influence biofilm growth and the composition of the extracellular substances surrounding cells in the biofilm. We have initially found that D-ribose, a common pentose, significantly increases the biofilm production of PHL628 E. coli. We are interested in how the composition of biofilm, namely the EPS surrounding biofilm cells, changes with the addition of ribose. We extracted the EPS of biofilms grown at different experimental conditions to analyze the matrix of carbohydrates and proteins produced by E. coli. Using UV-visible spectroscopy and confocal microscopy, we compared the concentration of carbohydrates and proteins between samples of biofilm grown with and without the introduction of ribose. We found that ribose increased both carbohydrate and protein production statistically significantly, suggesting that ribose increases E. coli’s ability to envelop themselves in biofilm, increasing their potential for antibiotic resistance. We found through disk diffusion assays that ribose changes the susceptibility of E. coli to certain antibiotics. Future work will use liquid chromatography and immunoblotting to identify the specific EPS components increased by ribose, providing insight into potential strategies for disrupting biofilm-mediated antibiotic resistance.
Notes
Presenter: Justin Bader