Environmental bacteria persistently exist in hospitals and thereby often contaminate biomedical devices, which usually causes device-associated infections that have become a major cause of patient illness and death in the hospital. In this study, for the first time, the identification of strong shear flow persister (SSP) cells in Pseudomonas aeruginosa is reported. Unlike common persister cells that are highly tolerant to antibiotics, it is reported that the SSP cells can resist mechanical washings on the surfaces of various polymer materials and can form distinctive biofilms that are tolerant to high doses of aminoglycoside antibiotics. Most importantly, a general molecular mechanism is revealed by which an outer membrane protein crosslinks with polysaccharides to form gel-like adhesion complexes that can exert extremely strong adhesion strength (up to 50 N mm-2 ). Therefore, these findings are urgently required for ongoing research focused on preparing antifouling biomedical materials.
Keywords: Pseudomonas aeruginosa; antifouling materials; bacterial adhesion; biofilms; healthcare-associated infections.
© 2017 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.