Influence of trophic conditions on exopolysaccharide production: bacterial biofilm susceptibility to chlorine and monochloramine

This study examines the controversial efficacy of chlorine and monochloramine against biofilms that differ in their extracellular polysaccharide (EPS) content. The results point out a net variability of bacterial biofilm susceptibility according to the nutrients present. Chlorine and monochloramine showed an equal biocidal activity on lactose medium-grown E. coli ATCC 10 536 and glycerol - ammonium nitrate medium-grown nonmucoid Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilms. In contrast, the effect of monochloramine is greater compared with that of chlorine on E. coli and mucoid P. aeruginosa biofilms grown in sucrose and glycerol - ammonium nitrate media, respectively. In these culture conditions, treatment with 25 mg monochloramine/L for 2 h reduced culturable cells by 4.5 logs (99.997%) for E. coli and about 3 logs (99.87%) for mucoid P. aeruginosa while the similar treatment with chlorine reduced culturable cells in these biofilms by 2.2 logs (99.4%) and 1 log (10%), respectively. The decrease of chlorine disinfection efficacy on sucrose and glycerol - ammonium nitrate medium-grown biofilms is postulated to be linked to the higher polysaccharide production observed in these media. It seems likely that monochloramine produces a high leakage of material absorbing at 260 nm from sucrose medium-grown E. coli biofilm, which could indicate its better penetration into biofilms.