Dispersal from Microbial Biofilms

Go Forth and Colonize: Dispersal from Clinically Important Microbial Biofilms.

The past two decades have witnessed remarkable developments in the field of microbial biofilm research, with the implementation of advanced molecular technologies enabling in-depth understanding of the sessile lifestyle across a variety of systems and organisms. The keen focus on biofilms is justified mostly because of their significant clinical impact, which has prompted the need to explore, m...

Microbial Biofilms

Microbial biofilms: from ecology to molecular genetics.

Biofilms are complex communities of microorganisms attached to surfaces or associated with interfaces. Despite the focus of modern microbiology research on pure culture, planktonic (free-swimming) bacteria, it is now widely recognized that most bacteria found in natural, clinical, and industrial settings persist in association with surfaces. Furthermore, these microbial communities are often co...

Differentiation and Dispersal in Biofilms

Biofilm formation is now commonly associated with concepts of development, differentiation, and dispersal of microorganisms, and often more broadly with multicellular biological systems. This underlying theme of multicellularity among sessile microorganisms has undoubtedly attracted significant fundamental research interest to the field. This chapter will summarize and discuss aspects of cellul...

Surface hydrophobicity and dispersal of Pseudomonas aeruginosa from biofilms.

A novel method of cell culture was employed to control the growth-rate of bacterial biofilms [1]. Cell-surface hydrophobicity increased progressively with growth rate for planktonic, chemostatgrown Pseudomonas aeruginosa and also for cells, resuspended from the biofilms. Dependence of surface hydrophobicity upon growth rate was greater for the planktonic cells. Newly-formed daughter cells, shed...