Microbial diversity and putative opportunistic pathogens in dishwasher biofilm communities

Prem Krishnan Raghupathi, Jerneja Zupančič, Asker Daniel Brejnrod, Samuel Jehan Auguste Jacquiod, Kurt Houf, Mette Burmølle, Nina Gunde-Cimerman, Søren Johannes Sørensen

21 Citations (Scopus)
50 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Extreme habitats are not only limited to natural environments, but also exist in manmade systems, for instance, household appliances such as dishwashers. Limiting factors, such as high temperatures, high and low pHs, high NaCl concentrations, presence of detergents, and shear force from water during washing cycles, define microbial survival in this extreme system. Fungal and bacterial diversity in biofilms isolated from rubber seals of 24 different household dishwashers was investigated using next-generation sequencing. Bacterial genera such as Pseudomonas, Escherichia, and Acinetobacter, known to include opportunistic pathogens, were represented in most samples. The most frequently encountered fungal genera in these samples belonged to Candida, Cryptococcus, and Rhodotorula, also known to include opportunistic pathogenic representatives. This study showed how specific conditions of the dishwashers impact the abundance of microbial groups and investigated the interkingdom and intrakingdom interactions that shape these biofilms. The age, usage frequency, and hardness of incoming tap water of dishwashers had significant impact on bacterial and fungal community compositions. Representatives of Candida spp. were found at the highest prevalence (100%) in all dishwashers and are assumed to be one of the first colonizers in recently purchased dishwashers. Pairwise correlations in tested microbiomes showed that certain bacterial groups cooccur, as did the fungal groups. In mixed bacterial-fungal biofilms, early adhesion, contact, and interactions were vital in the process of biofilm formation, where mixed complexes of bacteria and fungi could provide a preliminary biogenic structure for the establishment of these biofilms.

Original languageEnglish
Article numbere02755-17
JournalApplied and Environmental Microbiology
Volume84
Issue number5
Number of pages17
ISSN0099-2240
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - 1 Mar 2018

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Microbial diversity and putative opportunistic pathogens in dishwasher biofilm communities'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this