The slimy outer layer of fungi and bacteria known as the "extracellular matrix," or ECM, has the consistency of jelly and acts as a protective and envelope layer. But, according to a recent study in the journal iScience, ...
Cell & Microbiology
May 31, 2023
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46
A recent study by Tokyo Tech researchers has found that the biofilm-forming bacteria E. coli adheres firmly to hydrophobic and hydrophilic protein-adsorbing self-assembling monolayers (SAMs) and weakly to hydrophilic protein-resisting ...
Biochemistry
May 8, 2023
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9
Similar to how cells within human tissues communicate and function together as a whole, bacteria are also able to communicate with each other through chemical signals, a behavior known as quorum signaling (QS). These chemical ...
Biochemistry
Apr 4, 2023
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33
There are up to 10,000 fungal spores in every cubic meter of air that can enter our bodies when we breathe them in. Some of these belong to the species Aspergillus fumigatus, a widespread fungus found everywhere in the environment.
Biochemistry
Feb 28, 2023
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228
Researchers in the Wallace H. Coulter Department of Biomedical Engineering at Georgia Tech and Emory University have uncovered something new in one of the most studied organisms on Earth, and their discoveries could impact ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 26, 2023
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110
The electrical potential across the bacterial cell envelope indicates when bacteria no longer operate as individual cells but as a collective. Researchers at the University of Cologne's Institute for Biological Physics have ...
Cell & Microbiology
Jan 19, 2023
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43
Biofilms form when microorganisms such as certain types of bacteria adhere to the surface of objects in a moist environment and begin to reproduce resulting in the excretion of a slimy glue-like substance.
General Physics
Dec 28, 2022
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80
Biofilms, complex communities of bacteria, abound around us: on the surface of cheese where they give off flavors and aromas, in streams where they form the slimy substance on rocks, on our teeth where they form plaque.
Cell & Microbiology
Dec 12, 2022
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64
Scientists analyzing the effects of an organic compound on drug resistance bacteria have discovered how it can inhibit and kill a germ that causes serious illness or in some cases death.
Molecular & Computational biology
Oct 28, 2022
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663
Bacteria love moist surfaces. Once they have settled there, they do not live as solitary organisms but form larger communities that are embedded in a protective film. These biofilms are found on various surfaces, for example ...
Bio & Medicine
Oct 27, 2022
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52
A biofilm is an aggregate of microorganisms in which cells are stuck to each other and/or to a surface. These adherent cells are frequently embedded within a self-produced matrix of extracellular polymeric substance (EPS). Biofilm EPS, which is also refered to as "slime," is a polymeric jumble of DNA, proteins and polysaccharides. Biofilms may form on living or non-living surfaces, and represent a prevalent mode of microbial life in natural, industrial and hospital settings . The cells of a microorganism growing in a biofilm are physiologically distinct from planktonic cells of the same organism, which by contrast, are single-cells that may float or swim in a liquid medium. Microbes form a biofilm in response to many factors, which may include cellular recognition of specific or non-specific attachment sites on a surface, nutritional cues, or in some cases, by exposure of planktonic cells to sub-inhibitory concentrations of antibiotics . When a cell switches to the biofilm mode of growth, it undergoes a phenotypic shift in behavior in which large suites of genes are differentially regulated .
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