The impact of methylparaben and chlorine on the architecture of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia biofilms
Pereira, Ana Rita and Rooney, Liam M and Gomes, Inês B and Simões, Manuel and McConnell, Gail (2024) The impact of methylparaben and chlorine on the architecture of Stenotrophomonas maltophilia biofilms. Science of the Total Environment, 951. 175646. ISSN 1879-1026 (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.scitotenv.2024.175646)
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Abstract
The biofilm architecture is significantly influenced by external environmental conditions. Biofilms grown on drinking water distribution systems (DWDS) are exposed to environmental contaminants, including parabens, and disinfection strategies, such as chlorine. Although changes in biofilm density and culturability from chemical exposure are widely reported, little is known about the effects of parabens and chlorine on biofilm morphology and architecture. This is the first study evaluating architectural changes in Stenotrophomonas maltophilia colony biofilms (representatives of bacterial communities presented in DWDS) induced by the exposure to methylparaben (MP) at environmental (15 μg/L) and in-use (15 mg/L) concentrations, and chlorine at 5 mg/L, using widefield epi-fluorescence mesoscopy with Mesolens. The GFP fluorescence of colony biofilms allowed the visualization of internal structures and Nile Red fluorescence permitted the inspection of the distribution of lipids. Our data show that exposure to MP triggers physiological and morphological adaptation in mature colony biofilms by increasing the complexity of internal structures, which may confer protection to embedded cells from external chemical molecules. These architectural modifications include changes in lipid distribution as an adaptive response to MP exposure. Although chlorine exposure affected colony biofilm diameter and architecture, the colony roundness was completely affected by the simultaneous presence of MP and chlorine. This work is pioneer in using Mesolens to highlight the risks of exposure to emerging environmental contaminants (MP), by affecting the architecture of biofilms formed by drinking water (DW) bacteria, even when combined with routine disinfection strategies.
ORCID iDs
Pereira, Ana Rita, Rooney, Liam M ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-2237-501X, Gomes, Inês B, Simões, Manuel and McConnell, Gail ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-7213-0686;-
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Item type: Article ID code: 90467 Dates: DateEvent15 November 2024Published20 August 2024Published Online17 August 2024Accepted25 June 2024SubmittedSubjects: Medicine > Biomedical engineering. Electronics. Instrumentation Department: Faculty of Science > Strathclyde Institute of Pharmacy and Biomedical Sciences Depositing user: Pure Administrator Date deposited: 04 Sep 2024 09:58 Last modified: 06 Oct 2024 00:43 Related URLs: URI: https://strathprints.strath.ac.uk/id/eprint/90467