Oldham Athenia L, Steinberg Mia K, Duncan Kathleen E, Makama Zakari, Beech Iwona
Department of Biology, University of Texas of the Permian Basin, 4901 E University, Odessa, TX, 79762, USA.
Naval Surface Warfare Center Carderock Division, 9500 Macarthur Blvd, West Bethesda, MD, 20817, USA.
J Ind Microbiol Biotechnol. 2017 Feb;44(2):167-180. doi: 10.1007/s10295-016-1887-7. Epub 2016 Dec 24.
Navy vessels consist of various metal alloys and biofilm accumulation at the metal surface is thought to play a role in influencing metal deterioration. To develop better strategies to monitor and control metallic biofilms, it is necessary to resolve the bacterial composition within the biofilm. This study aimed to determine if differences in electrochemical current could influence the composition of dominant bacteria in a metallic biofilm, and if so, determine the level of resolution using metagenomic amplicon sequencing. Current was generated by creating galvanic couples between cathodes made from stainless steel and anodes made from carbon steel, aluminum, or copper nickel and exposing them in the Delaware Bay. Stainless steel cathodes (SSCs) coupled to aluminum or carbon steel generated a higher mean current (0.39 mA) than that coupled to copper nickel (0.17 mA). Following 3 months of exposure, the bacterial composition of biofilms collected from the SSCs was determined and compared. Dominant bacterial taxa from the two higher current SSCs were different from that of the low-current SSC as determined by DGGE and verified by Illumina DNA-seq analysis. These results demonstrate that electrochemical current could influence the composition of dominant bacteria in metallic biofilms and that amplicon sequencing is sufficient to complement current methods used to study metallic biofilms in marine environments.
海军舰艇由各种金属合金组成，金属表面的生物膜积累被认为在影响金属腐蚀方面发挥作用。为了制定更好的策略来监测和控制金属生物膜，有必要解析生物膜内的细菌组成。本研究旨在确定电化学电流的差异是否会影响金属生物膜中优势细菌的组成，如果是，则使用宏基因组扩增子测序确定分辨率水平。通过在由不锈钢制成的阴极与由碳钢、铝或铜镍制成的阳极之间形成原电池对并将它们暴露在特拉华湾中来产生电流。与铝或碳钢耦合的不锈钢阴极（SSCs）产生的平均电流（0.39 mA）高于与铜镍耦合的阴极（0.17 mA）。暴露3个月后，测定并比较从SSCs收集的生物膜的细菌组成。通过DGGE确定并经Illumina DNA测序分析验证，来自两个较高电流SSCs的优势细菌分类群与低电流SSC的不同。这些结果表明，电化学电流可以影响金属生物膜中优势细菌的组成，并且扩增子测序足以补充用于研究海洋环境中金属生物膜的现有方法。
