The biofilm matrix: multitasking in a shared space

Abstract

The biofilm matrix serves as a shared space for its cellular inhabitants, comprising a wide variety of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS), like polysaccharides, proteins, amyloids, lipids and extracellular DNA (eDNA), as well as membrane vesicles and humic-like, bacterially derived refractory substances. The EPS are dynamic in space and time and its components interact in complex ways, fulfilling various functions: to stabilize the matrix, acquire nutrients, retain and protect eDNA or exoenzymes, or offer sorption sites for ions and hydrophobic substances. The retention of exoenzymes effectively renders the biofilm matrix an external digestion system influencing the global turnover of biopolymers. Physicochemical and biological interactions and environmental conditions enable biofilm systems to morph into films, micro- and macro-colonies, ridges, ripples, columns, pellicles, bubbles, mushrooms and suspended aggregates – in response to the very diverse conditions confronting a particular biofilm community. This impedes efforts to control them and increases microbial tolerance to, for example, antibiotics, disinfectants and other antimicrobials. Assembly and dynamics of this intricate, active and responsive structure is mostly coordinated by secondary messengers such as cyclic-di-GMP, signaling molecules, or small RNAs, depending on the species involved. Fully deciphering how bacteria provide structure to the matrix, and thus facilitate and benefit from extracellular reactions, remains the challenge for future biofilm research.

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ORCID for Paul Stoodley: orcid.org/0000-0001-6069-273X

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