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The impact of antibiotics on bacterial cellulose in vivo

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This study investigated how antibiotics, to which Gluconacetobacter hansenii is naturally resistant, impact cellulose crystallinity, allomorph, aggregation into bundles and layers, cellulose yield, and cell morphology. G. hansenii was exposed to 100 μg/mL ampicillin, chloramphenicol, and kanamycin for 7 days, and cellulose structure was analyzed using scanning electron microscopy, X-ray diffraction, and Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy. Biomass and cellulose weights were also assessed. Ampicillin increased bundle thickness, and the bundles also showed nodular deposits indicative of non-cellulosic exopolysaccharide deposition. Ampicillin also yielded the lowest amount of cellulose per gram of biomass (p < 0.01) and induced significant filamentation behavior. Chloramphenicol inhibited biomass production (p < 0.01), increased the I-α allomorph content (p < 0.01), and also induced filamentation, though not as profusely as ampicillin. We hypothesize that defects in the peptidoglycan layer and in protein production lowered cellulose yield and promoted cells to undergo filamentation as a survival tactic. Additionally, we hypothesize that antibiotic stress caused additional exopolysaccharides to be produced and that they likely enhanced glucan chain aggregation into higher-order structures. Our findings have significant implications for downstream applications such as genetically engineering G. hansenii to produce bacterial cellulose with modified properties.

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Acknowledgments

The authors thank Dr. Nicole Brown and Dr. Teh-hui Kao for their input on experimental design and on testing antibiotic stability during the 7-day bacterial growth period. Also, the authors thank Nichole Wonderling, Beth Jones, Gino Tambourine, Josh Stapleton, Max Wetherington, Trevor Clark, Julie Anderson, and Daniel Veghte for training on XRD, FTIR, and SEM equipment and for their advice on best practices for analyzing the data. This research was supported by the USDA Forest Service (Agreement No. 11-JV-11111129-121), the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Fellowship Program (Grant No. DGE1255832), and the Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences Graduate Student Competitive Grants Program.

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  1. Alyssa L. Henning

    Present address: School of Biological and Health Systems Engineering, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ, 85287, USA

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  1. Department of Agricultural and Biological Engineering, 109 Agricultural Engineering, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA, 16802, USA

    Alyssa L. Henning & Jeffrey M. Catchmark

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Correspondence to Jeffrey M. Catchmark.

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Henning, A.L., Catchmark, J.M. The impact of antibiotics on bacterial cellulose in vivo. Cellulose 24, 1261–1285 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10570-016-1169-6

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