Plos.Org
When we think about bacteria, we may imagine single cells swimming in solution. However, similarly to humans, bacterial cells often socialize, using surfaces to coalesce into complex heterogeneous communities called biofilms. Within a group, bacteria in the biofilm are extremely robust in resisting various environmental stresses—a crucial feature making biofilm-associated infections extremely difficult to treat with antibiotics.
For over 50 years, biofilm research has centered around the biological processes which allow biofilms to thrive and become tolerant to antibiotic treatment. In recent perspective work published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, researchers at the Max-Planck-Zentrum für Physik und Medizin, Erlangen, in collaboration with partners from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Harvard Medical School, shared their insights into how bacteria rely on physical processes to form and maintain biofilms, including survival under extreme stress conditions.
This work highlights how, in addition to biomolecular details of signaling and regulation, biophysical interactions play an important role in bacterial life cycles and infection.
Read on: https://phys.org/news/2024-09-bacteria-passive-physics-biofilms.html