This study investigates the effect of MarT regulator protein on the production of Salmonella Typhimurium biofilm under in vitro culture conditions. The biofilm formation showed a statistically significant decrease compared to the wild-type strain at the two consecutive concentrations of arabinose ( and ) in which the production of MarT protein was promoted to the highest level. | Turkish Journal of Biology Turk J Biol (2015) 39: 722-731 © TÜBİTAK doi: Research Article The effect of marT gene on biofilm production of Salmonella Typhimurium Burcu YENER İLÇE, Nefise AKÇELİK* Biotechnology Institute, Ankara University, Ankara, Turkey Received: Accepted/Published Online: Printed: Abstract: This study investigates the effect of MarT regulator protein on the production of Salmonella Typhimurium biofilm under in vitro culture conditions. The biofilm formation showed a statistically significant decrease compared to the wild-type strain at the two consecutive concentrations of arabinose ( and ) in which the production of MarT protein was promoted to the highest level. When comparing the biofilm formation capacity to the wild type, the mutants containing a mutation in the genes investigated in terms of marT regulation showed statistically significant reductions, which were identified as fliA (59%), fliC (40%), fimA (46%), fidL (25%), and misL (25%) mutants. The biofilm structures of all strains used in this study were detected as the rdar morphotype in agar plates. Among the genes examined, fimA, slsA, fliA, dps, cheA, and wzzB genes were found to have a direct effect on the pellicle formation of S. Typhimurium. Finally, the biofilm formation features of the mutant strain, in which marT expression is induced, on glass, stainless steel, and polystyrene were also examined, and it was determined that the ability to produce biofilm decreased on all surfaces. Key words: Biofilm, Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium, marT, Red/ET recombination system 1. Introduction Salmonella species can form multicellular structures, commonly called biofilms, on various surfaces such as polymer, stainless steel, and glass, as well as biotic surfaces such as gallstones and epithelial cells (Costerton et al., 1999; Donlan and Costerton, 2002; Hall-Stoodley et .
