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J. Bacteriol. doi:10.1128/JB.01867-06
Copyright (c) 2007, American Society for Microbiology and/or the Listed Authors/Institutions. All Rights Reserved.

Vibrio cholerae strains possess multiple strategies for abiotic and biotic surface colonization

Marine Biology Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, CA 92037, United States of America; School of Biotechnology and Biomolecular Sciences, Centre for Marine Biofouling and Bio-Innovation, University of New South Wales, Sydney, NSW 2052 Australia

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. Email: dbartlett{at}ucsd.edu.

	Abstract

Despite its notoriety as a human pathogen, Vibrio cholerae is an aquatic microbe suited to live in fresh water, estuarine and marine environments where biofilm formation may provide a selective advantage. Here we report the characterization of biofilms formed on abiotic and biotic surfaces by two Non-O1/O139 V. cholerae strains, TP and SIO, to the O1 V. cholerae strain N16961, and the discovery of 44 transposon mutants of SIO and TP impaired in biofilm formation. During the course of characterizing the mutants, thirty loci, which have not previously been associated with V. cholerae biofilms, were identified. These encode for proteins which perform a wide variety of functions including amino acid metabolism, ion transport and gene regulation. Also, when the plankton colonization abilities of strains N16961, SIO and TP were examined, each showed increased colonization of dead over live plankton (the dinoflagellate Lingulodinium polyedrum and the copepod Tigriopus californicus). Surprisingly, most of the biofilm mutants were not impaired in plankton colonization. Only mutants impaired in motility or chemotaxis showed reduced colonization. These results indicate the presence of both conserved and variable genes which influence the surface colonization properties of different V. cholerae subspecies.