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Calcium-Mediated Induction Of Vibrio Fischeri Es114 Biofilms, Katia Elizabeth Semenchuk

Master's Theses

Vibrio fischeri bacteria form biofilms that facilitate symbiotic colonization of the Hawaiian bobtail squid, Euprymna scolopes. These host-associated biofilms require production of the SYP polysaccharide. However, it has been difficult to observe robust biofilm formation in vitro in a laboratory setting using wild-type strain ES114; instead, most work investigating syp-dependent biofilm formation has relied on genetically altered strains. Guided by recent findings that increasing calcium induces c-di-GMP (Tischler et al., 2021), a molecule known in other systems to promote biofilm formation, the question was posed as to whether high levels of calcium alone could promote syp-dependent biofilm formation by ES114. …