Chemical imaging of functional group distributions in living biofilms using infrared microspectroscopy

Bacteria predominantly grow as biofilms attached to liquid or solid interfaces. Biofilms are complex structures that contain bacterial cells interwoven in an extracellular polysaccharide matrix. The protein, lipid and polysaccharide molecules within a biofilm contain characteristic functional groups which can be identified and mapped using infrared microspectroscopy. The objective of this study is to image the distributions of biomolecules within living biofilms and to monitor the chemical evolution of biofilms in situ during microbial growth.