The roles of intracellular and extracellular calcium in Bacillus subtilis biofilms

Alona Keren-Paz; Harsh Maan; Iris Karunker; Tsviya Olender; Sergey Kapishnikov; Simon Dersch; Elena Kartvelishvily; Sharon G Wolf; Assaf Gal; Peter L Graumann; Ilana Kolodkin-Gal

doi:10.1016/j.isci.2022.104308

The roles of intracellular and extracellular calcium in Bacillus subtilis biofilms

iScience. 2022 Apr 27;25(6):104308. doi: 10.1016/j.isci.2022.104308. eCollection 2022 Jun 17.

Authors

Affiliations

¹ Department of Molecular Genetics, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
² Chemical Research Support, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
³ Centre for Synthetic Microbiology (SYNMIKRO), Fachbereich Chemie, Philipps-Universität Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
⁴ Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, Weizmann Institute of Science, Rehovot, Israel.
⁵ Department of Plant Pathology and Microbiology, Faculty of Agriculture, Food and Environment, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Rehovot, Israel.

Abstract

In nature, bacteria reside in biofilms- multicellular differentiated communities held together by an extracellular matrix. This work identified a novel subpopulation-mineral-forming cells-that is essential for biofilm formation in Bacillus subtilis biofilms. This subpopulation contains an intracellular calcium-accumulating niche, in which the formation of a calcium carbonate mineral is initiated. As the biofilm colony develops, this mineral grows in a controlled manner, forming a functional macrostructure that serves the entire community. Consistently, biofilm development is prevented by the inhibition of calcium uptake. Our results provide a clear demonstration of the orchestrated production of calcite exoskeleton, critical to morphogenesis in simple prokaryotes.

Keywords: Microbiofilms; Microbiology; cell biology.