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Abstract
Pseudomonas aeruginosa can form biofilms which is of vital importance for a variety of industries. It has been reported that antibiotic resistance is a hallmark of biofilms which is critically significant for the medical industry as the persistence of infectious agents is dangerous. For cystic fibrosis patients, colonization of the lungs with Pseudomonas can be damaging. Recently, the antibiotic resistance of biofilms was attributed to alginate, a long chain polymer of uronic acids. Utilizing two strains, each with selective mutations either in algU, a transcriptional regulator of the alginate synthesis operon, or algL, a lyase that will sever bonds between the monomers of the alginate polymer, biofilm was quantified using a crystal violet assay over 3 days. Since it was not clear if the crystal violet assay will stain the biofilm cells, the extracellular polymeric substance, or both a concurrent growth assay was conducted. The growth patterns between the mutant strains and control were consistent, with the number of o biofilm bacteria declining after 1 day of incubation at 37 C. The amount of biofilm increased steadily for the mutant strains but at a slower pace than the wild-type biofilm which declined after one day of considerable expansion. From these results, we speculate that alginate synthesis is not a required attribute in biofilm formation in the PAO1 strain.