Gene-trait matching analysis reveals putative genes involved in Bifidobacterium spp. biofilm formation

Zongmin Liu; Haitao Li; Lingzhi Li; QingQing Ma; ZhiFeng Fang; Hongchao Wang; Yuankun Lee; Jianxin Zhao; Hao Zhang; Wei Chen; Wenwei Lu

doi:10.1016/j.gene.2022.146449

Gene-trait matching analysis reveals putative genes involved in Bifidobacterium spp. biofilm formation

Gene. 2022 Jun 5:826:146449. doi: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146449. Epub 2022 Mar 22.

Authors

Zongmin Liu¹, Haitao Li¹, Lingzhi Li¹, QingQing Ma¹, ZhiFeng Fang¹, Hongchao Wang¹, Yuankun Lee², Jianxin Zhao³, Hao Zhang³, Wei Chen³, Wenwei Lu⁴

Affiliations

¹ State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
² Department of Microbiology & Immunology, Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, National University of Singapore, Singapore 117545, Singapore; International Joint Research Laboratory for Pharmabiotics & Antibiotic Resistance, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
³ State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; National Engineering Research Center for Functional Food, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China.
⁴ State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; International Joint Research Laboratory for Pharmabiotics & Antibiotic Resistance, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China; National Engineering Research Center for Functional Food, Jiangnan University, Wuxi 214122, China. Electronic address: luwenwei@jiangnan.edu.cn.

PMID: 35337850
DOI: 10.1016/j.gene.2022.146449

Abstract

Biofilm formation by bacteria represents an adaptation strategy to the environment, and some special genes may lead to a strong biofilm phenotype. In this study, we attempted to find functional genes associated with bifidobacterial biofilm formation. Firstly, we evaluated the biofilm formation ability of bifidobacterial strains from six species, which showed that Bifidobacterium longum, Bifidobacterium breve, Bifidobacterium animalis, Bifidobacterium adolescentis, and Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum had biofilm-forming and non-biofilm-forming strains, while all Bifidobacterium bifidum strains could form strong biofilms. Then 48 strains were selected for genome sequencing and comparative analysis. The gene-trait matching analysis revealed that B. bifidum biofilm formation phenotype may associate with their unique genes, involving in stress response, quorum sensing, two components, and peptide synthesis. B. pseudocatenulatum biofilm formation was positively correlated with the eps cluster (rfbX). While no genotype related to the biofilm phenotype was found in B. longum using this analysis, but all contain autoinducer-2 (AI-2) receptor genes. Moreover, luxS, rbsB, rfbX were selected for real-time qPCR analysis, suggesting that their expression are important to biofilm formation. These results indicated that strains carrying certain genes tend to form stronger biofilms than those formed by strains without these genes.

Keywords: Bifidobacterium; Biofilm; Gene-trait matching; Phenotype; Quorum sensing.

MeSH terms

Bacteria
Bifidobacterium* / genetics
Bifidobacterium* / metabolism
Biofilms
Phenotype
Quorum Sensing* / genetics