Junker, Peters and Hay identified 114 "biofilm-important" candidate genes that appear to be important for biofilm formation in a competitve environment. They incubated a collection of random Tn5 mutants in either a biofilm or planktonic reactor vessel, and harvested cells after 62 hrs of continuous culture. Panorama E. coli DNA array membranes (Sigma-Genosys Biotechnologies) were then used to identify Tn5 mutations that were under-represented (selected against) during either biofilm or planktonic growth. 114 "biofilm-important" genes and 80 "planktonic-important" candidate genes were identified. ArcA was validated as important for biofilm formation. 2/80 planktonic-important "genes" (ycdV and b0017) are not in EcoGene and are spurious annotation errors. The GenePages for the 192 genes identified in this study have links to this TopicPage.

Junker LM, Peters JE, Hay AG, Global analysis of candidate genes important for fitness in a competitive biofilm using DNA-array-based transposon mapping, Microbiology, 152:2233-45, 2006.

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