Surfactin production is not essential for pellicle and root-associated biofilm development of Bacillus subtilis
Maude Thérien,
Heiko T. Kiesewalter,
Emile Auria,
Vincent Charron-Lamoureux,
Mario Wibowo,
Gergely Maróti,
Ákos T. Kovács,
Pascale B. Beauregard
Affiliations
Maude Thérien
Centre SÈVE, Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada
Heiko T. Kiesewalter
Bacterial Interactions and Evolution Group, DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark
Emile Auria
Centre SÈVE, Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada; Biology Department, Ecole Normale Supérieure Paris-Saclay, Paris-Saclay University, Cachan, France
Vincent Charron-Lamoureux
Centre SÈVE, Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada
Mario Wibowo
Natural Product Discovery Group, DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark
Gergely Maróti
Institute of Plant Biology, Biological Research Center of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Szeged, Hungary
Ákos T. Kovács
Bacterial Interactions and Evolution Group, DTU Bioengineering, Technical University of Denmark, Kgs Lyngby, Denmark; Corresponding author.
Pascale B. Beauregard
Centre SÈVE, Département de Biologie, Faculté des Sciences, Université de Sherbrooke, Sherbrooke, Canada; Corresponding author.
Secondary metabolites have an important impact on the biocontrol potential of soil-derived microbes. In addition, various microbe-produced chemicals have been suggested to impact the development and phenotypic differentiation of bacteria, including biofilms. The non-ribosomal synthesized lipopeptide of Bacillus subtilis, surfactin, has been described to impact the plant promoting capacity of the bacterium. Here, we investigated the impact of surfactin production on biofilm formation of B. subtilis using the laboratory model systems; pellicle formation at the air-medium interface and architecturally complex colony development, in addition to plant root-associated biofilms. We found that the production of surfactin by B. subtilis is not essential for pellicle biofilm formation neither in the well-studied strain, NCIB 3610, nor in the newly isolated environmental strains, but lack of surfactin reduces colony expansion. Further, plant root colonization was comparable both in the presence or absence of surfactin synthesis. Our results suggest that surfactin-related biocontrol and plant promotion in B. subtilis strains are independent of biofilm formation.
