Pseudomonas fluorescens' view of the periodic table
Open Access
- 26 September 2007
- journal article
- Published by Wiley in Environmental Microbiology
- Vol. 10 (1), 238-250
- https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1462-2920.2007.01448.x
Abstract
Growth in a biofilm modulates microbial metal susceptibility, sometimes increasing the ability of microorganisms to withstand toxic metal species by several orders of magnitude. In this study, a high‐throughput metal toxicity screen was initiated with the aim of correlating biological toxicity data in planktonic and biofilm cells to the physiochemical properties of metal ions. To this end, Pseudomonas fluorescens ATCC 13525 was grown in the Calgary Biofilm Device (CBD) and biofilms and planktonic cells of this microorganism were exposed to gradient arrays of different metal ions. These arrays included 44 different metals with representative compounds that spanned every group of the periodic table (except for the halogens and noble gases). The minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC), minimum bactericidal concentration (MBC) and minimum biofilm eradication concentration (MBEC) values were obtained after exposing the biofilms to metal ions for 4 h. Using these values, metal ion toxicity was correlated to the following ion‐specific physicochemical parameters: standard reduction‐oxidation potential, electronegativity, the solubility product of the corresponding metal–sulfide complex, the Pearson softness index, electron density and the covalent index. When the ions were grouped according to outer shell electron structure, we found that heavy metal ions gave the strongest correlations to these parameters and were more toxic on average than the other classes of the ions. Correlations were different for biofilms than for planktonic cells, indicating that chemical mechanisms of metal ion toxicity differ between the two modes of growth. We suggest that biofilms can specifically counter the toxic effects of certain physicochemical parameters, which may contribute to the increased ability of biofilms to withstand metal toxicity.Keywords
This publication has 41 references indexed in Scilit:
- The Thiol:Disulfide Oxidoreductase DsbB Mediates the Oxidizing Effects of the Toxic Metalloid Tellurite (TeO 3 2− ) on the Plasma Membrane Redox System of the Facultative Phototroph Rhodobacter capsulatusJournal of Bacteriology, 2007
- The GacS sensor kinase controls phenotypic reversion of small colony variants isolated from biofilms of Pseudomonas aeruginosa PA14FEMS Microbiology Ecology, 2007
- Metal resistance in Candida biofilmsFEMS Microbiology Ecology, 2006
- A bacterial view of the periodic table: genes and proteins for toxic inorganic ionsJournal of Industrial Microbiology & Biotechnology, 2005
- Global Analysis of Cellular Factors and Responses Involved inPseudomonas aeruginosaResistance to ArseniteJournal of Bacteriology, 2005
- Shear Stress Affects the Kinetics of Staphylococcus aureus Adhesion to CollagenBiotechnology Progress, 2000
- Metal binding by Pseudomonas aeruginosa PAO1 is influenced by growth of the cells as a biofilmCanadian Journal of Microbiology, 1999
- Metals and microorganisms: A problem of definitionFEMS Microbiology Letters, 1992
- Aqueous Solubilities, Solubility Products and Standard Oxidation‐Reduction Potentials of the Metal SulfidesJournal of the Electrochemical Society, 1988
- The Inhibition of Urease by Various Metal IonsJournal of the American Chemical Society, 1954