From Ian Sutherland, University of Edinburgh
Edinburgh
Andy Coghlan presents a fascinating picture of biofilm (“Slime city”,
31 August, p 32), but the idea of a single “glue” alginate is a gross
oversimplification. It is not the only type of glue. Biofilm bacteria produce a
wide range of exopolysaccharides (EPS) each with distinct chemical and physical
properties. Alginate lyases, which degrade bacterial alginates only to a very
limited extent, will have no effect on other types of EPS.
Other enzymes with unique specificities may indeed degrade the EPS and these
may come from the bacteria producing the EPS, but they are also commonly found
in bacteriophages. Use of both bacteriophages and their associated enzymes
provides yet another tool for examining biofilm structure.
Interest in biofilms is fortunately encouraging the study of mixed bacterial
populations after years of concentrating on Escherichia coli
microbiology, but perhaps we should look more closely at the myxobacteria,
populations of which have long been known to possess unique and intriguing
social behaviour. They may well show some similarities to biofilms, not least in
the adhesins and glues used to bind the cells together to form fruiting
bodies.
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