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Microbial Biofilm: spatial organization plasticity as an adaptive driver 

The traditional perception of microbes as unicellular life forms has deeply changed over the last decades with the collection of scientific evidences showing that microorganisms predominantly live in dense and complex communities known as biofilms. Biofilms are dynamic habitats which constantly evolve in response to environmental fluctuations and thereby constitute remarkable survival strategies for microorganisms. The modulation of biofilm functional properties is largely governed by the active remodeling of their three-dimensional structure and involves an arsenal of microbial self-produced components and interconnected mechanisms. The production of matrix components, the spatial reorganization of ecological interactions, the generation of physiological heterogeneity, the regulation of motility, the production of actives enzymes are for instance some of the processes enabling such spatial organization plasticity. The possibility to harness such characteristics to sculpt biofilm structure as an attractive approach to control their functional properties, whether beneficial or deleterious, is also explored.  https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8123-3492

Keywords: microbial biofilm, spatial dynamic, structure/function, adaptative response

Copyright photo Julien Deschamps