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A novel application of Gini coefficient for the quantitative measurement of bacterial aggregation

A novel application of Gini coefficient for the quantitative measurement of bacterial aggregation
A novel application of Gini coefficient for the quantitative measurement of bacterial aggregation
Non-surface attached bacterial aggregates are frequently found in clinical settings associated with chronic infections. Current methods quantifying the extent to which a suspended bacterial population is aggregated mainly rely on: (1) cell size distribution curves that are difficult to be compared numerically among large-scale samples; (2) the average size/proportion of aggregates in a population that do not specify the aggregation patterns. Here we introduce a novel application of Gini coefficient, herein named Aggregation Coefficient (AC), to quantify the aggregation levels of cystic fibrosis Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CF-PA) isolates in vitro using 3D micrographs, Fiji and MATLAB. Different aggregation patterns of five strains were compared statistically using the numerical AC indexes, which correlated well with the size distribution curves plotted by different biovolumes of aggregates. To test the sensitivity of AC, aggregates of the same strains were treated with nitric oxide (NO), a dispersal agent that reduces the biomass of surface attached biofilms. Strains unresponsive to NO were reflected by comparable AC indexes, while those undergoing dispersal showed a significant reduction in AC index, mirroring the changes in average aggregate sizes and proportions. Therefore, AC provides simpler and more descriptive numerical outputs for measuring different aggregation patterns compared to current approaches.
2045-2322
1-12
Cai, Yu-ming
ec0ec21f-cb8d-4407-aed8-01da53182083
Chatelet, David S.
6371fd7a-e274-4738-9ccb-3dd4dab32928
Howlin, Robert P.
f3c84990-6196-47d4-ad8a-80954ea46c7f
Wang, Zhi-zhong
e02a61e4-fd4c-4c43-9c0d-a706ec99899c
Webb, Jeremy S.
ec0a5c4e-86cc-4ae9-b390-7298f5d65f8d
Cai, Yu-ming
ec0ec21f-cb8d-4407-aed8-01da53182083
Chatelet, David S.
6371fd7a-e274-4738-9ccb-3dd4dab32928
Howlin, Robert P.
f3c84990-6196-47d4-ad8a-80954ea46c7f
Wang, Zhi-zhong
e02a61e4-fd4c-4c43-9c0d-a706ec99899c
Webb, Jeremy S.
ec0a5c4e-86cc-4ae9-b390-7298f5d65f8d

Cai, Yu-ming, Chatelet, David S., Howlin, Robert P., Wang, Zhi-zhong and Webb, Jeremy S. (2019) A novel application of Gini coefficient for the quantitative measurement of bacterial aggregation. Scientific Reports, 9 (1), 1-12. (doi:10.1038/s41598-019-55567-z).

Record type: Article

Abstract

Non-surface attached bacterial aggregates are frequently found in clinical settings associated with chronic infections. Current methods quantifying the extent to which a suspended bacterial population is aggregated mainly rely on: (1) cell size distribution curves that are difficult to be compared numerically among large-scale samples; (2) the average size/proportion of aggregates in a population that do not specify the aggregation patterns. Here we introduce a novel application of Gini coefficient, herein named Aggregation Coefficient (AC), to quantify the aggregation levels of cystic fibrosis Pseudomonas aeruginosa (CF-PA) isolates in vitro using 3D micrographs, Fiji and MATLAB. Different aggregation patterns of five strains were compared statistically using the numerical AC indexes, which correlated well with the size distribution curves plotted by different biovolumes of aggregates. To test the sensitivity of AC, aggregates of the same strains were treated with nitric oxide (NO), a dispersal agent that reduces the biomass of surface attached biofilms. Strains unresponsive to NO were reflected by comparable AC indexes, while those undergoing dispersal showed a significant reduction in AC index, mirroring the changes in average aggregate sizes and proportions. Therefore, AC provides simpler and more descriptive numerical outputs for measuring different aggregation patterns compared to current approaches.

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Accepted/In Press date: 28 November 2019
Published date: 12 December 2019

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 436551
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/436551
ISSN: 2045-2322
PURE UUID: 0a064d64-9763-4707-aa98-b4d3372495b0
ORCID for Jeremy S. Webb: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0003-2068-8589

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Date deposited: 13 Dec 2019 17:30
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 03:07

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Contributors

Author: Yu-ming Cai
Author: David S. Chatelet
Author: Robert P. Howlin
Author: Zhi-zhong Wang
Author: Jeremy S. Webb ORCID iD

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