大腸菌標準野生株(ECOR strains)におけるバイオフィルム形成能の分析

Abstract

Biofilms are communities of microorganisms adhering to solid surfaces. The microbial cells growing in biofilms are physiologically distinct from planktonic cells of the same organism. Although Escherichia coli (E. coli) have been often used for studying biofilm, past studies predominantly used laboratory E. coli strains, most of which belong to one serotype, K-12. In order to analyze biofilm formation characteristics in natural E. coli strains, we used E. coli collection of reference (ECOR) strains which were a standard collection of 72 wild-type E. coli strains established from 2600 neural isolates. We have classified the 72 ECOR strains into five groups, four groups by their features on biofilm formation such as the rate of biofilm-formation and preference for hydrophilic or hydrophobic surface, and one group for those cannot be classified into the four groups. Since the 72 ECOR strains showed a broader range of biofilm forming characteristics than the laboratory strains, it is suggested that the natural E. coli strains growing in biofilms are physiologically diverse.