Biofilms offer a safe environment that favors bacterial survival; for this reason, most pathogenic and environmental bacteria live integrated in biofilm communities. The development of biofilms is complex and involves many factors, which need to be studied in order to understand bacterial behavior and control biofilm formation when necessary. We used a collection of cold-adapted Antarctic Gram-negative bacteria to study whether their ability to form biofilms is associated with a capacity to produce membrane vesicles and secrete extracellular ATP. In most of the studied strains, no correlation was found between biofilm formation and these two factors. Only Shewanella vesiculosa M7T secreted high levels of extracellular ATP, and its membrane vesicles caused a significant increase in the speed and amount of biofilm formation. In this strain, an important portion of the exogenous ATP was contained in membrane vesicles, where it was protected from apyrase treatment. These results confirm that ATP influences biofilm formation. Although the role of extracellular ATP in prokaryotes is still not well understood, the metabolic cost of its production suggests it has an important function, such as a role in biofilm formation. Thus, the liberation of extracellular ATP through membrane vesicles and its function deserve further study.
Keywords: Antarctica; Biofilm; Extracellular ATP; Gram-negative bacteria; Membrane vesicles.