Elucidating the effect of cations in environmental-clinical interface of Klebsiella biofilm and related genes.

The determined role of Klebsiella biofilm formation in urinary tract causing recurrent Urinary Tract Infection (UTI) infections remains unclear, particularly regarding how environmental survival strategies translate to clinical virulence. On elimination of nitrogen source, the medium with carbon source (glucose) and cations mediates the Klebsiella biofilm formation. Among the tested cations, K+ and Ca2+ cations yielded strong biofilm in clinical and environment isolates in pH between 6.5 to 9.5. Concurrently, the ions enhanced the size of the capsule and cell density of Klebsiella but were not correlated with biofilm mass. Expression of the Lipopolysaccharide (LPS) gene (wabG) either in planktonic or biofilm stage promoted biofilm formation in the presence of K+, Ca2+ and Na+. Whereas, expression of fimbriae genes (fimH and mrkD) was co-regulated, and capsule genes (rmpA and wcab) were absent. Stating, the primary component needed for the Klebsiella biofilm is not the capsule or fimbriae, rather LPS. This suggests that LPS, rather than capsule or fimbriae, is the primary component driving biofilm development at the environmental-clinical interface. Consequently, wabG emerges as a potent target for treating Klebsiella biofilms in UTIs. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first kind of study on the effect of cations on biofilm and planktonic cells of Klebsiella sp. and demonstrating the role of LPS biosynthesis gene (wabG) in biofilm development.