Dual-Species Biofilms: Biomass, Viable Cell Ratio/Cross-Species Interactions, Conjugative Transfer.

Biofilms as a form of adaptation are beneficial for bacterial survival and may be hot spots for horizontal gene transfer, including conjugation. The aim of this research was to characterize the biofilm biomass, viable cell ratios and conjugative transfer of the pOX38 plasmid, an F-plasmid derivative, from the N4i pOX38 strain (donor) into a uropathogenic DL82 strain (recipient) within dual-species biofilms with one of the following opportunistic pathogenic bacteria: , or . Dual-species biofilms of with or but not were more massive and possessed more exopolysaccharide matrix compared to single-species biofilms of donor and recipient cells.

Differences in recipient ability of uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains in relation with their pathogenic potential.

Conjugation is recognized as a mechanism driving dissemination of antibacterial resistances and virulence factors among bacteria. In the presented work conjugative transfer frequency into clinical uropathogenic Escherichia coli strains (UPEC) isolated from patients with symptomatic urinary tract infections was investigated. From 93 obtained UPEC strains only 29 were suitable for conjugation experiments with the plasmid pOX38, a well-known F-plasmid derivative.