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Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools

Bacteria can organise themselves into communities in the forms of biofilms and swarms. Through chemical and physical interactions between cells, these communities exhibit emergent properties that individual cells alone do not have. While bacterial communities have been mainly studied in the context...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Grobas, Iago, Bazzoli, Dario G., Asally, Munehiro
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Portland Press Ltd. 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7752047/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33300966
http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20200972
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author Grobas, Iago
Bazzoli, Dario G.
Asally, Munehiro
author_facet Grobas, Iago
Bazzoli, Dario G.
Asally, Munehiro
author_sort Grobas, Iago
collection PubMed
description Bacteria can organise themselves into communities in the forms of biofilms and swarms. Through chemical and physical interactions between cells, these communities exhibit emergent properties that individual cells alone do not have. While bacterial communities have been mainly studied in the context of biochemistry and molecular biology, recent years have seen rapid advancements in the biophysical understanding of emergent phenomena through physical interactions in biofilms and swarms. Moreover, new technologies to control bacterial emergent behaviours by physical means are emerging in synthetic biology. Such technologies are particularly promising for developing engineered living materials (ELM) and devices and controlling contamination and biofouling. In this minireview, we overview recent studies unveiling physical and mechanical cues that trigger and affect swarming and biofilm development. In particular, we focus on cell shape, motion and density as the key parameters for mechanical cell–cell interactions within a community. We then showcase recent studies that use physical stimuli for patterning bacterial communities, altering collective behaviours and preventing biofilm formation. Finally, we discuss the future potential extension of biophysical and bioengineering research on microbial communities through computational modelling and deeper investigation of mechano-electrophysiological coupling.
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spelling pubmed-77520472021-01-05 Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools Grobas, Iago Bazzoli, Dario G. Asally, Munehiro Biochem Soc Trans Review Articles Bacteria can organise themselves into communities in the forms of biofilms and swarms. Through chemical and physical interactions between cells, these communities exhibit emergent properties that individual cells alone do not have. While bacterial communities have been mainly studied in the context of biochemistry and molecular biology, recent years have seen rapid advancements in the biophysical understanding of emergent phenomena through physical interactions in biofilms and swarms. Moreover, new technologies to control bacterial emergent behaviours by physical means are emerging in synthetic biology. Such technologies are particularly promising for developing engineered living materials (ELM) and devices and controlling contamination and biofouling. In this minireview, we overview recent studies unveiling physical and mechanical cues that trigger and affect swarming and biofilm development. In particular, we focus on cell shape, motion and density as the key parameters for mechanical cell–cell interactions within a community. We then showcase recent studies that use physical stimuli for patterning bacterial communities, altering collective behaviours and preventing biofilm formation. Finally, we discuss the future potential extension of biophysical and bioengineering research on microbial communities through computational modelling and deeper investigation of mechano-electrophysiological coupling. Portland Press Ltd. 2020-12-18 2020-12-10 /pmc/articles/PMC7752047/ /pubmed/33300966 http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20200972 Text en © 2020 The Author(s) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open access article published by Portland Press Limited on behalf of the Biochemical Society and distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0 (CC BY) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) .
spellingShingle Review Articles
Grobas, Iago
Bazzoli, Dario G.
Asally, Munehiro
Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
title Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
title_full Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
title_fullStr Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
title_full_unstemmed Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
title_short Biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
title_sort biofilm and swarming emergent behaviours controlled through the aid of biophysical understanding and tools
topic Review Articles
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7752047/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33300966
http://dx.doi.org/10.1042/BST20200972
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