Harleen Tewatia, “The Motility of Phage Resistant Mucoid Escherichia coli”
Mentor: Alita Burmeister, Biological Sciences
Poster #173

Lytic bacteriophages are viruses that infect and kill bacteria and have the potential to be used as alternatives to antibiotics.  However, bacteria can evolve resistance to phage which could render this treatment method ineffective. We are investigating the resistance mechanism of mucoidy and its effect on motility. To do this, we isolated 27 E. coli mucoid mutants using laboratory selection experiments with phage U136B. We then quantified these mutants’ phage resistance using efficiency of plaquing (EOP) assays and their bacterial motility using swim agar plates. We found that all 27 mucoid E. coli mutants are resistant to phage U136B, however we did find that some mucoid mutants were only partially phage resistant.  We also discovered that all 27 mucoid mutants are less motile than the wild type bacteria, but some mutants were more motile than others. In future work, we will confirm motility with phase contrast microscopy and test if mucoid mutations influence biofilm production. Our results suggest the evolution of mucoidy could coincide with reduced motility, which would be a beneficial side effect of phage therapy.