Enzyme-Driven Biofilm Dispersal Through Central Carbon Metabolism Disruption
Roode, Nicole
Roode, Nicole
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Abstract
Chronic wounds are often infected by bacterial biofilms that are resistant to traditional antimicrobial treatments. One promising method of treating these biofilms is through targeting bacterial metabolism and inducing biofilm dispersal. Pyruvate is a critical metabolite for biofilm formation and persistence in Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Prior work has demonstrated that pyruvate dehydrogenase (PDH) can induce substantial biofilm dispersal through pyruvate depletion, however, further research is needed to understand the underlying mechanism behind biofilm dispersal induced by metabolic disruption. Our lab is investigating alternative metabolic enzymes, citrate synthase (CS), and lactate dehydrogenase (LDH), to better understand the mechanism behind metabolic induced biofilm disruption due to their involvement in glycolysis and the citric acid cycle. Biofilms of P. aeruginosa were grown in M9 minimal broth supplemented with glucose and treated with PDH, CS, or LDH. Biofilm biomass was quantified using crystal violet staining. Both CS and LDH induced significant biofilm dispersal relative to untreated controls. Notably, CS demonstrated the strongest dispersal effect, outperforming PDH, while LDH also exhibited enhanced activity compared to PDH under the tested conditions. These findings suggest that targeting metabolism beyond pyruvate depletion can effectively disrupt biofilm stability. Overall, these results support the use of alternative metabolic enzymes as a more effective strategy for biofilm disruption and help advance current knowledge of metabolic biofilm dispersion.
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Date
1/1/2026
Student Status
Graduate Student
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Poster
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Biomedical Engineering
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College of Engineering and Mathematical Sciences
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Engineering