Biofilm

About: Biofilm is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 23010 publications have been published within this topic receiving 906812 citations. The topic is also known as: biofilms.

Extracellular polymeric substances responsible for bacterial adhesion onto solid surface.

Abstract: The influence of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) on bacterial cell adhesion onto solid surfaces was investigated using 27 heterotrophic bacterial strains isolated from a wastewater treatment reactor. Cell adhesion onto glass beads was carried out by the packed-bed method and the results were discussed in terms of the amount of each EPS component produced and cell surface characteristics such as zeta potential and hydrophobicity. Protein and polysaccharides accounted for 75-89% of the EPS composition, indicating that they are the major EPS components. Among the polysaccharides, the amounts of hexose, hexosamine and ketose were relatively high in EPS-rich strains. For EPS-poor strains, the efficiency of cell adhesion onto glass beads increased as the absolute values of zeta potential decreased, suggesting that electrostatic interaction suppresses cell adhesion efficiency. On the other hand, the amounts of hexose and pentose exhibited good correlations with cell adhesiveness for EPS-rich strains, indicating that polymeric interaction due to the EPS covering on the cell surface promoted cell adhesion. It was concluded that, if the EPS amount is relatively small, cell adhesion onto solid surfaces is inhibited by electrostatic interaction, and if it is relatively large, cell adhesion is enhanced by polymeric interaction.

Cooperation and conflict in microbial biofilms

Abstract: Biofilms, in which cells attach to surfaces and secrete slime (polymeric substances), are central to microbial life. Biofilms are often thought to require high levels of cooperation because extracellular polymeric substances are a shared resource produced by one cell that can be used by others. Here we examine this hypothesis by using a detailed individual-based simulation of a biofilm to investigate the outcome of evolutionary competitions between strains that differ in their level of polymer production. Our model includes a biochemical description of the carbon fluxes for growth and polymer production, and it explicitly calculates diffusion-reaction effects and the resulting solute gradients in the biofilm. An emergent property of these simple but realistic mechanistic assumptions is a strong evolutionary advantage to extracellular polymer production. Polymer secretion is altruistic to cells above a focal cell: it pushes later generations in their lineage up and out into better oxygen conditions, but it harms others; polymer production suffocates neighboring nonpolymer producers. This property, analogous to vertical growth in plants, suggests that polymer secretion provides a strong competitive advantage to cell lineages within mixed-genotype biofilms: global cooperation is not required. Our model fundamentally changes how biofilms are expected to respond to changing social conditions; the presence of multiple strains in a biofilm should promote rather than inhibit polymer secretion.

Biofilm Susceptibility to Antimicrobials

Abstract: Microbial biofilms, where organisms are intimately associated with each other and a solid substratum through binding and inclusion within an exopolymer matrix, are widely distributed in nature and disease. In the mouth, multispecies biofilms are associated not only with dental plaque and tooth decay but also with soft tissues of the buccal cavity and with most forms of periodontal disease. Organization of micro-organisms within biofilms confers, on the component species, properties which are not evident with the individual species grown independently or as planktonic populations in liquid media. While many of these properties relate to the establishment of functional, mixed-species consortia within the exopolymeric matrices, others relate to the establishment of physico-chemical gradients, within the biofilm, that modify the metabolism of the component cells. A consequence of biofilm growth that has profound implications for their control in the environment and in medicine is a markedly enhanced resistanc...