Use of fluorophore-conjugated lectins to study cell-cell interactions in model marine biofilms

Biofilms dominated by pennate diatoms are important in fields as diverse as ship biofouling and marine littoral sediment stabilization. The architecture of a biofilm depends on the fact that much of its mass consists of extracellular polymers. Although most illuminated biofilms in nature are dominated by phototrophs, they also contain heterotrophic bacteria. Given the close spatial association of the two types of organisms, cell-cell interaction is likely. Fluorophore-conjugated lectins were used to demonstrate the sites of the various extracellular polymers in three species of diatoms. Based on their lectin staining properties, the polymers in different species appeared to be similar, but their involvement in the process of attachment to a surface differed. In a coculture Pseudoalteromonas sp. strain 4 or its sterilized spent medium reduced the ability of Amphora coffeaeformis and Navicula sp. strains 1 and D to adhere, inhibited motility, and caused agglutination and eventually diatom cell lysis. Diatoms could be protected from the negative effects of the bacterial spent medium if D-galactose or mannan was included in the incubation medium. The active principle of the spent medium is probably a lectin/agglutinin that is able to bind to the extracellular polymers of the diatoms that are involved in adhesion and motility. Awareness of interactions of this type is important in the study of natural biofilms.