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Review
. 2021 Apr 27:11:660048.
doi: 10.3389/fcimb.2021.660048. eCollection 2021.

Amylases: Biofilm Inducer or Biofilm Inhibitor?

Dibyajit Lahiri  1 , Moupriya Nag  1 , Ritwik Banerjee  1 , Dipro Mukherjee  1 , Sayantani Garai  1 , Tanmay Sarkar  2   3 , Ankita Dey  4 , Hassan I Sheikh  5 , Sushil Kumar Pathak  6 , Hisham Atan Edinur  7 , Siddhartha Pati  8   9 , Rina Rani Ray  4
Affiliations
Review

Amylases: Biofilm Inducer or Biofilm Inhibitor?

Dibyajit Lahiri et al. Front Cell Infect Microbiol. .

Abstract

Biofilm is a syntrophic association of sessile groups of microbial cells that adhere to biotic and abiotic surfaces with the help of pili and extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). EPSs also prevent penetration of antimicrobials/antibiotics into the sessile groups of cells. Hence, methods and agents to avoid or remove biofilms are urgently needed. Enzymes play important roles in the removal of biofilm in natural environments and may be promising agents for this purpose. As the major component of the EPS is polysaccharide, amylase has inhibited EPS by preventing the adherence of the microbial cells, thus making amylase a suitable antimicrobial agent. On the other hand, salivary amylase binds to amylase-binding protein of plaque-forming Streptococci and initiates the formation of biofilm. This review investigates the contradictory actions and microbe-associated genes of amylases, with emphasis on their structural and functional characteristics.

Keywords: amylase; antibiofilm; antimicrobial; biofilm; sessile.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Development of resistance against antimicrobial substances.
Figure 2
Figure 2
EPS as a site of action for antibiofilm agents.
Figure 3
Figure 3
(A) Human salivary alpha amylase, (B) human pancreatic amylase (C) alpha amylase, and (D) beta amylase.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Mechanism of formation of biofilm by S. gordonii.
Figure 5
Figure 5
The contribution/role of Streptococcus mutans in the process of the formation of biofilms (Zhu et al., 2018).
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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