Electrophoretic protein typing of microbial planktons and biofilms: An investigation of different growth modes of Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa

Typing system which is important to differentiate microbial populations may employ various research tools such as polymerase chain reaction, DNA sequencing and electrophoresis. In this study, microbial growth modes of Candida albicans and Pseudomonas aeruginosa were investigated using a combination of polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis and densitometry. Results showed that both C. albicans and P. aeruginosa were likely to have the same capacity in terms of microbial biomass production. In the context of biofilm growth mode, C. albicans biofilm was found to have a higher tendency of forming cell aggregation at the bottom of an in vitro setup as compared to P. aeruginosa biofilm. The relative molecular mass of the proteins resolved by polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis ranged between 8.12 kDa and 169 kDa. The protein profiles were observed to vary among all groups (C. albicans biofilms, C. albicans planktons, P. aeruginosa biofilms and P. aeruginosa planktons). Further analysis using densitometry revealed changes of protein levels across all groups. Therefore, we concluded that the electrophoretic pattern was likely dependent on microbial growth modes and taxonomic ranks.