Use of a new gelling agent (Eladium©) as an alternative to agar-agar and its adaptation to screen biofilm-forming yeasts

Gognies, Sabine; Belarbi, A.

doi:10.1007/s00253-010-2800-3

Cited by 6 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…EladiumÔ is a polysaccharide produced by Rhizobium that has been used to screen yeasts for their biolm-forming abilities. 146 Gellan (GELRITEÔ or GelzanÔ) is a heterosaccharide derived from Pseudomonas that has been used to culture a variety of clinically important bacteria. 147 Polyacrylamide (PA) gels 148 and polyelectrolyte multilayers (PEMs) 149 provide controllable surfaces for studies of cell-surface interactions.…”

Section: Methods Of Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacteria–surface interactions

2013

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The interaction of bacteria with surfaces has important implications in a range of areas, including bioenergy, biofouling, biofilm formation, and the infection of plants and animals. Many of the interactions of bacteria with surfaces produce changes in the expression of genes that influence cell morphology and behavior, including genes essential for motility and surface attachment. Despite the attention that these phenotypes have garnered, the bacterial systems used for sensing and responding to surfaces are still not well understood. An understanding of these mechanisms will guide the development of new classes of materials that inhibit and promote cell growth, and complement studies of the physiology of bacteria in contact with surfaces. Recent studies from a range of fields in science and engineering are poised to guide future investigations in this area. This review summarizes recent studies on bacteria-surface interactions, discusses mechanisms of surface sensing and consequences of cell attachment, provides an overview of surfaces that have been used in bacterial studies, and highlights unanswered questions in this field.

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Section: Methods Of Studymentioning

confidence: 99%

Bacteria–surface interactions

2013

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“…These limitations suggest new opportuni- ties for the introduction of other biocompatible polymers that stimulate cell growth and decrease cell culture time. Polysaccharides produced by bacteria-namely, gellan, xanthan, and Eladium-have attracted attention as substrates for microbial cell culture (4,8,9), as these exopolysaccharides support cell growth and facilitate colony formation. The omission of BC from the list of exopolysaccharides produced by bacteria that have been explored in the context of cell culture substrates is surprising and motivated us to test its properties.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…To circumvent the limitations of agar and increase the repertoire of materials available for bacterial culture, several polysaccharides have been used, including xanthan, gellan, Eladium, and guar (4,(8)(9)(10). These polymers can be used to culture organisms that do not grow or grow poorly on agar and may increase growth rates (8,9), which may ultimately have applications for culturing the microbial majority (11). New materials for culture may revolutionize microbiology by improving access to organisms previously recalcitrant to culture and facilitating medical microbiology by decreasing the time to culture and detection.…”

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confidence: 99%

Bacterial Cellulose as a Substrate for Microbial Cell Culture

Yin

Santos

Auer

et al. 2014

Appl Environ Microbiol

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Bacterial cellulose (BC) has a range of structural and physicochemical properties that make it a particularly useful material for the culture of bacteria. We studied the growth of 14 genera of bacteria on BC substrates produced by Acetobacter xylinum and compared the results to growth on the commercially available biopolymers agar, gellan, and xanthan. We demonstrate that BC produces rates of bacterial cell growth that typically exceed those on the commercial biopolymers and yields cultures with higher titers of cells at stationary phase. The morphology of the cells did not change during growth on BC. The rates of nutrient diffusion in BC being higher than those in other biopolymers is likely a primary factor that leads to higher growth rates. Collectively, our results suggest that the use of BC may open new avenues in microbiology by facilitating bacterial cell culture and isolation.T he introduction of agar as a substrate for bacterial culture in 1882 was an innovation that continues to have a major impact on the microbiology field over a century later (1). A major component of the cell wall of red algae (e.g., the genera Gelidium and Gracilaria), agar consists of monomers of 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose, D-galactose, and L-galactose that are connected by ␤-(1,4) and ␣-(1,3) bonds. The preparation of agar for microbial cell culture involves decreasing the temperature of a solution of agar below its melting temperature (T m ) (typically ϳ50°C), which produces a disordered gel network in which a large volume fraction of water is bound to the hydrophilic polymer chains of agar. Agar has a range of physicochemical characteristics that have made it a widely used material for the culture of microbes, namely, (i) thermal stability, (ii) optical transparency, (iii) biocompatibility, (iv) resistance to degradation by many microorganisms, and (v) availability (2).Agar is by no means an ideal material for all microbiological studies, and its application has been limited by several salient characteristics. First, a number of bacterial species grow poorly or slowly on agar, including Edwardsiella tarda, Klebsiella oxytoca, Klebsiella pneumoniae, Shigella boydii, Shigella flexneri, Staphylococcus saprophyticus, Yersinia enterocolitica, Haemophilus parainfluenzae, Sinorhizobium meliloti, and Bradyrhizobium japonicum (3, 4). Second, agar is a heterogeneous polymer due to variability in the chain length and composition of the polysaccharide. This characteristic can be problematic, as the physicochemical properties of agar vary between manufacturers and batches, which complicates experimental outcomes and reproducibility in phenotypic studies (5, 6). Third, agar is not inert to all bacteria-several genera of bacteria, including Streptomyces, Vibrio, Pseudoalteromonas, Thalassomonas, Alteromonas, Agarivorans, and Microbulbifer, produce and secrete extracellular galactosidases that degrade the hydrogel, which limits its application in bacterial isolation and culture (7). Finally, the costs of harvesting algae and the subsequent proces...

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“…Agar consists of alternating blocks of D-galactose and 3,6-anhydro-L-galactose and is a polysaccharide with a variety of characteristics that are useful for culturing bacteria: (1) it is biocompatible; (2) it is inert to metabolism and degradation by bacteria; (3) it remains gelled at the range of temperatures commonly used for bacterial culture; and (4) it forms a hydrogel with a large volume fraction of bound water that hydrates cells in contact with the polymer. 3 Other classes of hydrogels, including gellan, 4 alginate, 5 xanthan gum, 6 guar gum, 7 and most recently Eladiumt 8 have been used as substrates for bacterial culture; however, they have not supplanted agar. These polymers share at least one shortcoming in common with agar for bacterial studies: chemical variability.…”

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confidence: 99%