Three faces of biofilms: a microbial lifestyle, a nascent multicellular organism, and an incubator for diversity

Anahit Penesyan; Ian T. Paulsen; Staffan Kjelleberg; Michael R. Gillings

doi:10.1038/s41522-021-00251-2

Three faces of biofilms: a microbial lifestyle, a nascent multicellular organism, and an incubator for diversity

Anahit Penesyan^*, Ian T. Paulsen, Staffan Kjelleberg, Michael R. Gillings

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal › Review article › peer-review

159 Citations (Scopus)

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Abstract

Biofilms are organised heterogeneous assemblages of microbial cells that are encased within a self-produced matrix. Current estimates suggest that up to 80% of bacterial and archaeal cells reside in biofilms. Since biofilms are the main mode of microbial life, understanding their biology and functions is critical, especially as controlling biofilm growth is essential in industrial, infrastructure and medical contexts. Here we discuss biofilms both as collections of individual cells, and as multicellular biological individuals, and introduce the concept of biofilms as unique incubators of diversity for the microbial world.

Original language	English
Article number	80
Pages (from-to)	1-9
Number of pages	9
Journal	npj Biofilms and Microbiomes
Volume	7
Issue number	1
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-021-00251-2
Publication status	Published - 10 Nov 2021

Bibliographical note

Copyright the Author(s) 2021. Version archived for private and non-commercial use with the permission of the author/s and according to publisher conditions. For further rights please contact the publisher.

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10.1038/s41522-021-00251-2

Publisher version (open access)Final published version, 1.03 MBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

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AU - Gillings, Michael R.

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Three faces of biofilms: a microbial lifestyle, a nascent multicellular organism, and an incubator for diversity

Abstract

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COESB: ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology

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Three faces of biofilms: a microbial lifestyle, a nascent multicellular organism, and an incubator for diversity

Abstract

Bibliographical note

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Other files and links

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Projects

COESB: ARC Centre of Excellence in Synthetic Biology

Cite this