Sumeet Kaur*, Sutherland JP
Microorganisms growing as collective communities called ‘biofilms’ are widely recognised today. Our understanding of this growth style of bacteria is however, still limited. Biofilms impact almost all aspects of human life: Personal, medical and industrial. Escherichia coli are model organisms for the study of biofilms. In this work, eight Entero Pathogenic E. coli (EPEC) were investigated for their biofilm forming abilities in iron limited and excess conditions. E. coli were able to form biofilms within a limited range of external iron concentration. This study observed a difference in iron requirements for planktonic and biofilms growth with biofilm bacteria needing higher concentrations of iron. Viable counts obtained from biofilms grown on the pegs modified Calgary Biofilm Device were found to be different and did not reveal any trends. This study underpins our understanding that external iron availability influences bio-films formed by these E. coli strains.
Published Date: 2022-12-07; Received Date: 2020-09-19
