Deciphering the influence of NaCl on social behaviour of Bacillus subtilis

Various environmental signals, such as temperature, pH, nutrient levels, salt content and the presence of other microorganisms, can influence biofilm’s development and dynamics. However, the innate mechanisms that govern at the molecular and cellular levels remain elusive. Here, we report the impact...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Royal Society open science Vol. 11; no. 9; pp. 240822 - 16
Main Authors: Murugan, Prem Anand, Sahu, Muktesh Kumar, Gupta, Manish Kumar, Sankar, T. Sabari, Chandran, Sivasurender, Matheshwaran, Saravanan
Format: Journal Article
Language:English
Published: England The Royal Society Publishing 01.09.2024
The Royal Society
Subjects:
Bacillus subtilis
Bacteria
biofilm
Biofilms
Drug resistance
flagella
Gene expression
Morphology
Motility
NaCl
Organismal and Evolutionary Biology
Physiology
Signal transduction
Social behavior
Sodium chloride
surface motility
surfactin
Viscoelasticity
surfactin
NaCl
flagella
surface motility
Bacillus subtilis
biofilm
ISSN:2054-5703, 2054-5703
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Various environmental signals, such as temperature, pH, nutrient levels, salt content and the presence of other microorganisms, can influence biofilm’s development and dynamics. However, the innate mechanisms that govern at the molecular and cellular levels remain elusive. Here, we report the impact of physiologically relevant concentrations of NaCl on biofilm formation and the associated differences in an undomesticated natural isolate of Bacillus subtilis . NaCl exposure and its uptake by bacterial cells induced substantial changes in the architecture of pellicle biofilm and an upsurge in the expansion of biofilm colonies on agar surfaces. We have observed the upregulation of genes involved in motility and the downregulation of genes involved in the biosynthesis of extracellular matrix components through the transcription factor sigD, suggesting the possible underlying mechanisms. To further support these observations, we have used Δ sigD and Δ srfAC null mutants, which showed compromised NaCl-induced effects. Our results indicate that NaCl induces a lifestyle shift in B. subtilis from a sessile biofilm state to an independent unicellular motile state. Overall, we present evidence that NaCl can reprogramme gene expression and alter cellular morphology and the state of cells to adapt to motility, which facilitates the expansion of bacterial colonies.
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Electronic supplementary material is available online at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.7431958.
These authors contributed equally to the study.
ISSN:2054-5703
2054-5703
DOI:10.1098/rsos.240822