Abstract:
In order to clarify the correlation between reactive oxygen species (ROS) and
Bacillus cereus biofilms, the ROS mediated by NADPH oxidase in the
Bacillus cereus that were isolated from commercially available raw milk was used as the main target. The relationship between the formation of
Bacillus cereus biofilms and ROS were analyzed by using supplement hydrogen peroxide (H
2O
2) as exogenous reactive oxygen species (ROS), N-acetylcysteine (NAC) as ROS scavenging agent and diphenyl iodide chloride (DPI) as NADPH oxidase inhibitor. The results showed that the treatment groups of 0.01 μmol/L H
2O
2, 1 μmol/L H
2O
2 and 100 μmol/L H
2O
2 average biofilms were higher than the control group average biofilms (
P<0.05). There was no significant difference between the treatment groups of 0.1 μmol/L H
2O
2 and 10 μmol/L H
2O
2 and the control group average biofilms (
P>0.05). With the increase of H
2O
2 concentration, ROS gradually decreased. The treatment groups of NAC average biofilms were higher than the control group average biofilms (
P<0.05). ROS decreased gradually with the increase of NAC concentration. When DPI concentration≤1 μmol/L, with the increase of DPI concentration, the average biofilms were higher than the control group average biofilms (
P<0.05), and ROS gradually decreased. When DPI concentration>5 μmol/L, with the increase of DPI concentration, the average biofilms were lower than the control group average biofilms (
P<0.05), and the ROS increased. The results showed that without affecting the growth and activity of
Bacillus cereus, the reduction of ROS induced by certain concentration of H
2O
2, NAC and DPI enhanced the
Bacillus cereus biofilms. Confocal laser scanning microscopy showed stronger staining and red network structures in the treated groups compared to the control groups, while the untreated groups showed loose structures and fewer biofilms, suggesting that ROS inhibits the formation of
Bacillus cereus biofilms.