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Center for Biofilm Engineering
Abstract:
"Hypothesis for the Role of Nutrient Starvation in Biofilm Detachment"
04-034 A combination of experimental and theoretical approaches was used to investigate
the role of nutrient starvation as a potential trigger for biofilm detachment.
Experimental observations of detachment in a variety of biofilm systems were
made with pure cultures of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. These observations indicated
that biofilms grown under continuous-flow conditions detached after flow was
stopped, that hollow cell clusters were sometimes observed in biofilms grown in
flow cells, and that lysed cells were apparent in the internal strata of colony
biofilms. When biofilms were nutrient starved under continuous-flow conditions,
detachment still occurred, suggesting that starvation and not the accumulation
of a metabolic product was responsible for triggering detachment in this
particular system. A cellular automata computer model of biofilm dynamics was
used to explore the starvation-dependent detachment mechanism. The model
predicted biofilm structures and dynamics that were qualitatively similar to
those observed experimentally. The predicted features included centrally located
voids appearing in sufficiently large cell clusters, gradients in growth rate
within these clusters, and the release of most of the biofilm with simulated
stopped-flow conditions. The model was also able to predict biofilm sloughing
resulting solely from this detachment mechanism. These results support the
conjecture that nutrient starvation is an environmental cue for the release of
microbes from a biofilm.
Hunt, S.M., E.M. Werner, B. Huang, M.A. Hamilton, and P.S. Stewart, "Hypothesis
for the Role of Nutrient Starvation in Biofilm Detachment," Appl. Environ.
Microbiol., 70(12):7418-7425 (2004) |
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