Transcriptomic profiling of polymicrobial biofilm dynamics on catheters in Vitro

• Main Author: Lai, Valerie Jia Hui
• Other Authors: School of Biological Sciences
• Format: Final Year Project
• Language: English
• Published: 2013
• Subjects: DRNTU::Science
• Online Access: http://hdl.handle.net/10356/53826
• Institution: Nanyang Technological University

Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs) have serious medical and economic implications. Although antibiotics can treat acute UTI, the recurrent nature of UTIs escalates the rate of antibiotic resistance and impedes the development of anti-microbial treatments. Catheter-associated UTIs (CAUTIs) are hospital-acquired UTIs caused by urinary catheters in the bladder which provides a surface for planktonic bacterial cells to adhere to before proliferation and maturation into a polymicrobial biofilm community. Dispersal marks the end of the biofilm life cycle and the beginning of bacterial dissemination which is believed to be responsible for biofilm virulence. Here, we report the set-up of catheter biofilm assay and our findings demonstrated that Escherichia coli UTI89 in the mixed species is preventing the dispersal of Enterococcus faecalis OG1RF in the mixed species although further investigation is required. Our study was also extended to mixed microbial communities given that molecular interactions within constituents of polymicrobial communities on the surface of urinary catheters are poorly defined. RNA sequencing was employed to map mRNA reads to gene expression in single and mixed species biofilm. Studying their gene expression profiles can provide an insight into biofilm dispersal and aid in the development of novel anti-microbial agents against CAUTIs.