Bacterial isolates from the Arctic region (Pasvik River, Norway): assessment of biofilm production and antibiotic susceptibility profiles

Bacterial biofilm production is recognised as a strategy that helps aquatic bacteria in resisting to the presence of several kinds of pollutants, including antibiotics, in the bulk environment. The Pasvik river, located between Norway, Russia and Finland, is a sub-Arctic site polluted by wastes from metallurgic and mining activities. In order to study whether and to what extent bacteria are able to produce biofilms, and to assess whether this physiological characteristic influences their resistance to antibiotics, an investigation was performed on bacteria isolated from water and sediment collected along the Pasvik river course during two surveys (May and July). Bacterial strains were screened for their biofilm production and profiles of susceptibility to antibiotics. Results showed that biofilm formation was a widespread characteristic of the isolates. Most of them were also resistant to several antibiotics, such as ampicillin (100% of the isolates) as well as cefazolin, cefoxitin, ceftriaxone, mezlocillin, nitrofurantoin, sisomycin (90% of the total strains). This study shows a significant association between biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance at inner stations both in water and sediments in May only. This suggests that in Pasvik river colder temperature may stimulate bacterial aggregation into biofilm and simultaneously decrease bacterial susceptibility to antibiotics; since the occurrence of antibiotic resistance has frequently been linked to the presence of pollutants, this result could represent a strategy of bacterial survival under altered environmental conditions.