Disruption of enterohaemorragic E. coli biofilm formation through long-term experimental evolution

Principal Investigators: Vanni Bucci, Ph.D., Beth McCormick, Ph.D., Mark Silby, Ph.D.

Objectives: Use state of the art technologies to assess the best strategy for combating

enterohaemorragic Escherica coli infections.

Antibiotic treatment to cure enterohaemorragic Escherica coli (EHEC) infections is often discouraged due to selection for antibiotic-resistant bacteria. The long-term goal for this project is to determine less evolutionary “cheatable” strategies to be used as alternatives to antibiotics. We combine experimental evolution assays and bacterial genomics to identify genetic modifications that result in altered traits, such as cell adhesion, infectivity, and biofilm formation.