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Unravelling interspecies interactions across heterogeneities in complex biofilm communities |
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| Authors: | Henriette L. Røder Nanna M. C. Olsen Marvin Whiteley Mette Burmølle |
| Affiliation: | 1. School of Biological Sciences, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Emory-Children's Cystic Fibrosis Center, Atlanta, Georgia, USA Center for Microbial Dynamics and Infection, Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta, Georgia, USA;2. Section of Microbiology, Department of Biology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark |
| Abstract: | The importance of microbial biofilms has been well-recognized for several decades, and focus is now shifting towards investigating multispecies biofilm communities rather than mono- or dual-species biofilms. Therefore, the demand for techniques that provide a sufficient amount of information at adequate resolution is increasing. One major challenge for multispecies studies is that diversity and spatial organization often lead to a high degree of spatial and chemical heterogeneity. Many current approaches do not account for such heterogeneity and therefore only provide average information (−omics techniques in particular), which could obscure important information about the community. Here, we bring attention to the issues of heterogeneity when analysing synthetic multi-species biofilms, in vitro, and the importance of multi-scale approaches. We provide an overview of current and newer approaches that can be applied to biofilm communities, in order to elucidate interactions at the appropriate scale. |
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