Biofilms are communities of bacteria that grow as a sheet covering a surface area, held together by a sticky substance. They offer protection to bacteria from disinfectants or antibiotics and can contain multiple species of bacteria, fungi, or algae. Biofilms can live on any surface with moisture and nutrients, and are difficult to remove by cleaning. They can cause recurring ear infections, Legionnaires’ disease, and can harbor on medical devices. Biofilms are protective against antibiotics and disinfectants, making them difficult to kill.
Biofilms are a type of bacterial community. Instead of growing as individual cells that are not attached to each other, some bacterial species can form biofilms and grow as a sheet covering a surface area. A bacterial biofilm is held together by a sticky substance produced by the bacteria. This structure offers protection to bacteria from disinfectants or antibiotics and is therefore of great interest to medicine and industry.
Bacteria can live alone, but living in groups can confer certain benefits. Species such as those of the bacterial genera Klebsiella and Pseudomonas are examples of the types that can live together in a bacterial biofilm. The surfaces that biofilms call home can be inanimate or even biological. For example, Pseudomonas aeruginosa can live on the interior surfaces of the lungs and potentially cause disease, or it can live on surfaces such as the inside of manufacturing machinery in a factory. Any surface that has a good supply of moisture and nutrients can support a bacterial biofilm.
Very often, a bacterial biofilm contains more than one species of bacteria. It can also host other microbes such as fungi or algae. A clean surface can quickly become covered in organic molecules from the surrounding environment. The first bacteria to colonize the surface attach themselves to the organic layer. The biofilm structure, as it develops, is held together by a glue-like substance made up of sugars produced by the bacteria themselves, which is difficult to remove by cleaning.
The toughness of bacterial biofilm allows bacteria to remain living in areas where they would otherwise be removed through mechanical action, fluid flow or biological action. The surface of the teeth is an example of an area where bacterial biofilms live, which are home to microbes that feed on the nutrients in the mouth. Flowing rivers can move free-living bacteria downstream and out to sea, but if the bacteria can get a foothold on river rocks, it can stay there and thrive as part of a biofilm.
Medical examples of biofilms include recurring ear infections, in which disease-causing bacteria live inside the ear. Legionnaires’ disease, which is a life-threatening lung infection, results from Legionella bacteria within hot water aerosol sources breaking free of their primary biofilms and making their way into the lungs. Medical devices needed by some hospitalized patients, such as intravenous tubes or catheters, can also harbor biofilms.
If biofilms weren’t beneficial to microbes, microbes wouldn’t form them. In addition to being able to remain in a nutrient-filled environment, such as a flowing river, bacterial biofilms are protective against antibiotics and disinfectants. More biofilm bacteria survive the presence of otherwise deadly chemicals than free-floating bacteria. This characteristic of biofilms makes bacteria that choose this way of life more difficult to kill in cases such as fighting infection or keeping surfaces clean.
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