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GGDEF proteins YeaI, YedQ, and YfiN reduce early biofilm formation and swimming motility in Escherichia coli

  • Applied Microbial and Cell Physiology
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Abstract

The second messenger 3′–5′-cyclic diguanylic acid (c-di-GMP) promotes biofilm formation, and c-di-GMP is synthesized by diguanylate cyclases (characterized by a GGDEF domain) and degraded by phosphodiesterases. Here, we evaluated the effect of the 12 E. coli GGDEF-only proteins on biofilm formation and motility. Deletions of the genes encoding the GGDEF proteins YeaI, YedQ, YfiN, YeaJ, and YneF increased swimming motility as expected for strains with reduced c-di-GMP. Alanine substitution in the EGEVF motif of YeaI abolished its impact on swimming motility. In addition, extracellular DNA (eDNA) was increased as expected for the deletions of yeaI (tenfold), yedQ (1.8-fold), and yfiN (3.2-fold). As a result of the significantly enhanced motility, but contrary to current models of decreased biofilm formation with decreased diguanylate cyclase activity, early biofilm formation increased dramatically for the deletions of yeaI (30-fold), yedQ (12-fold), and yfiN (18-fold). Our results indicate that YeaI, YedQ, and YfiN are active diguanylate cyclases that reduce motility, eDNA, and early biofilm formation and contrary to the current paradigm, the results indicate that c-di-GMP levels should be reduced, not increased, for initial biofilm formation so c-di-GMP levels must be regulated in a temporal fashion in biofilms.

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Acknowledgments

This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health (R01 GM089999). We are grateful for the KEIO and ASKA strains provided by the Genome Analysis Project in Japan and for the collaboration of Prof. Toshinari Maeda in the construction of the yeaI yedQ and yeaI yfiN strains.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Chemical Engineering, Texas A & M University, 220 Jack E. Brown Building, College Station, TX, 77843-3122, USA

    Viviana Sanchez-Torres, Hongbo Hu & Thomas K. Wood

  2. Key Laboratory of Microbial Metabolism, Ministry of Education, College of Life Science and Biotechnology, Shanghai Jiao Tong University, Shanghai, China, 200240

    Hongbo Hu

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  1. Viviana Sanchez-Torres
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  2. Hongbo Hu
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  3. Thomas K. Wood
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Correspondence to Thomas K. Wood.

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Sanchez-Torres, V., Hu, H. & Wood, T.K. GGDEF proteins YeaI, YedQ, and YfiN reduce early biofilm formation and swimming motility in Escherichia coli . Appl Microbiol Biotechnol 90, 651–658 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00253-010-3074-5

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