Bacterial surface attachment and fouling assay on polymer and carbon surfaces using Rheinheimera sp. identified using bacteria community analysis of brackish water

Abstract

Biofouling on surfaces in contact with sea- or brackish water can severely impact the function of devices like reverse osmosis modules. Single species laboratory assays are frequently used to test new low fouling materials. The choice of bacterial strain is guided by the natural population present in the application of interest and decides on the predictive power of the results. In this work, the analysis of the bacterial community present in brackish water from Mashabei Sadeh, Israel was performed and Rheinheimera sp. was detected as a prominent microorganism. A Rheinheimera strain was selected to establish a short-term accumulation assay to probe initial bacterial attachment as well as biofilm growth to determine the biofilm-inhibiting properties of coatings. Both assays were applied to model coatings, and technically relevant polymers including laser-induced graphene. This strategy might be applied to other water sources to better predict the fouling propensity of new coatings.

Keywords:

• Antifouling
• Biofilm
• Rheinheimera sp.
• Brackish water
• Water treatment
• Laboratory assay

Acknowledgment

The authors acknowledge access to the scanning electron microscope and atomic force microscopy by Prof. W. Schuhmann, Analytical Chemistry – Center for Electroanalytical Sciences (CES), RUB. The authors thank M. Trautmann for support with the AFM measurements. Authors would like to thank Dr. Revital Sharon-Gojman for the DNA extraction guidance and help.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Science and Technology of the State of Israel and the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF, PTKA), BMBF 02WIL1487. A.R and E.M acknowledge funding from ONR N00014-20-12244. M.N.K. thanks the Ministry of Absorption in Science of Israel for support.