Adhesion to Inanimate Surfaces

Abstract

Two experimental rationales applied to understanding interfaces in microbial ecology are: a) the exchange of bacteria between interfaces and the bulk phase, and b) the strong influence of environmental conditions on the extent and degree of adhesion. Recent studies (16, 20) very clearly show that surface active molecules, immobilized at both a solid- and an air-water interface, are scavenged and by this process transported into the bulk phase by both rod-shaped hydrophobic and hydrophilic bacteria and reversibly adhering “crawling” cells of Leptospira. With respect to the second point, it was shown that flux of nutrients in normally low nutrient, oligotrophic, aquatic environments (29) led to correspondingly rapid changes in bacterial cell physiology, morphology, and surface characteristics. Small starved cells in aquatic ecosystems appear to have an increased tendency for firm adhesion (7, 21), and growth under C- or N-limitation as compared to growth without nutrient limitation leads to drastic changes in cell surface properties and the adhesion pattern (5).