Professors Eileen Spain of Occidental College and Megan Nunez of Mt. Holyoke College are collaborating in a project supported by the Analytical and Surface Chemistry Program to apply physical methods to study biofilms from bacteria. In particular, the goal is to investigate the mechanisms by which the predator bacterium Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus interacts with biofilms of Gram-negative prey bacteria. The work addresses three challenges: measuring chemical/physical changes in prey cell surfaces during attack and infection, understanding how Bdellovibrio recognize E. coli prey cells and re-examining the uptake of prey molecules across the Bdellovibrio membrane. Constructed fluorescently-labeled DNA sequences will be fed to the Bdellovibrio to determine uptake preferences. Approaches include atomic force microscopy, the Langmuir-Blodgett technique, labeling techniques, molecular biology, genetical engineering, and other microscopy techniques.
This project will contribute to our understanding of the molecular bases of predator-prey interactions in biofilms. A more detailed understanding of the Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus life cycle could open new applications in, for example, ecology, medicine, industry and bio-defense. The project exposes undergraduate researchers to a number of highly relevant, complementary issues and uses an original cross-discipline approach involving biochemistry, physical chemistry, microbiology and nanosciences.
