Central metabolism is a key player in E. coli biofilm stimulation by sub-MIC antibiotics
Fig 2
Verification of novobiocin hits using an alternate biofilm assay.
a) Hits lacking genes involved in central metabolism are illustrated to show their location in the TCA cycle and respiration. Circles indicate metabolites of the TCA cycle. Growth and biofilm formation were measured for cells grown in 50:50 LB with serial dilutions of b) NOVO or c) CEF using peg-lid assays. Circles on the graphs show data points of technical triplicates that are representative of two biological replicates. Data are shown as a percent of control relative to each mutant’s respective untreated control. Percent of control indicates the Growth (OD600) or Biofilm (Abs600) values for treatment by a given condition divided by the Growth or Biofilm of the matched vehicle control multiplied by 100. Bars indicate the technical triplicate mean and the error bars show the standard error of the mean. The mean Abs600 raw values are shown above their respective biofilm bar, where the bottom value indicates the raw values from the untreated control and the top value indicates the raw values from the antibiotic treated condition. A one-way ANOVA followed by Dunnett’s multiple comparisons test was used to compare biofilm formation between the untreated control and treated wells; **** = p value<0.0001.