Three-Dimensional Organization of Self-Encapsulating Gluconobacter oxydans Bacterial Cells

VK Truong and CM Bhadra and AJ Christofferson and I Yarovsky and M Al Kobaisi and CJ Garvey and ON Ponamoreva and SV Alferov and VA Alferov and PGT Perera and DHK Nguyen and R Buividas and S Juodkazis and RJ Crawford and EP Ivanova, ACS OMEGA, 2, 8099-8107 (2017).

DOI: 10.1021/acsomega.7b01282

Self-organized bacteria have been the subject of interest for a number of applications, including the construction of microbial fuel cells. In this paper, we describe the formation of a self-organized, three- dimensional network that is constructed using Gluconobacter oxydans B-1280 cells in a hydrogel consisting of poly(vinyl alcohol) (PVA) with N-vinyl pyrrolidone (VP) as a cross-linker, in which the bacterial cells are organized in a particular side-by-side alignment. We demonstrated that nonmotile G. oxydans cells are able to reorganize themselves, transforming and utilizing PVA-VP polymeric networks through the molecular interactions of bacterial extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) components such as acetan, cellulose, dextran, and levan. Molecular dynamics simulations of the G. oxydans EPS components interacting with the hydrogel polymeric network showed that the solvent-exposed loops of PVA-VP extended and engaged in bacterial self-encapsulation.

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