Biologia Sintética e de Sistemas Atual
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Engineering Escherichia coli to Disrupt Poly-N-Acetylglucosamine Containing Bacterial Biofilms

Vihang Vivek Ghalsasi and Victor Sourjik

Biofilms are surface-associated structures formed by bacteria embedded in a self-produced matrix. Biofilms are exceptionally resistant to environmental stress, antimicrobial agents and host immune defense, and combating biofilms has recently become an important research topic. In this work, we present a biologically engineered system that can be applied against a wide range of biofilms formed by pathogenic and non-pathogenic bacteria. This system relies on Escherichia coli (disrupter) strain that was engineered to synthesize and secrete Dispersin B, an enzyme that can hydrolyze poly-N-acetyl glucosamine (PGA), a polymer found in the matrix of various bacterial biofilms. We show that the degradation of PGA by the disruptor strain results in the dispersion of the target biofilm. We propose that in the future this simple disrupter module can be combined with other biofilm detection and targeting systems aimed towards the destruction of an existing biofilm.