Abstract
Biofilms, which are essential vectors of bacterial survival, protect microbes from antibiotics and host immune attack and are one of the leading causes that maintain drug-resistant chronic infections. In nature, compared with monomicrobial biofilms, polymicrobial biofilms composed of multispecies bacteria predominate, which means that it is significant to explore the interactions between microorganisms from different kingdoms, species, and strains. Cross-microbial interactions exist during biofilm development, either synergistically or antagonistically. Although research into cross-species biofilms remains at an early stage, in this review, the important mechanisms that are involved in biofilm formation are delineated. Then, recent studies that investigated cross-species cooperation or synergy, competition or antagonism in biofilms, and various components that mediate those interactions will be elaborated. To determine approaches that minimize the harmful effects of biofilms, it is important to understand the interactions between microbial species. The knowledge gained from these investigations has the potential to guide studies into microbial sociality in natural settings and to help in the design of new medicines and therapies to treat bacterial infections.
Highlights
Biofilms are accumulated microbial communities attached to either natural or artificial surfaces (Khatoon et al, 2018)
Recent studies into biofilms have provided significant knowledge and understanding of the specific mechanisms that are involved in biofilm formation
Influenced by external or internal microenvironments, biofilms contain bacteria that either cooperate to achieve optimal survival and use of nutrients, such as S. gordonii and A. actinomycetemcomitans, or produce compounds that inhibit the proliferation of their competitors, such as K. pneumoniae and E. coli, that compete for iron
Summary
Biofilms are accumulated microbial communities attached to either natural or artificial surfaces (Khatoon et al, 2018). The association of different organisms allows the exchange of substrates, such as horizontal gene transfer (HGT) and metabolic interactions These complex and dynamic communications enhance attachment and adhesion to surfaces, promote further biofilm dispersion, and result in higher persistence in the environment (Flemming et al, 2016; Muhammad et al, 2020). The environment and sequence of colonization play a key role to determine the type of interactions in polymicrobial biofilms, for example, cooperation or competition, evidenced by a study on P. aeruginosa in cystic fibrosis and oral commensal streptococci (Whiley et al, 2015). Because polymicrobial constituents are common in nature, the synergism and cooperation between different microbes are important to maintain the coexistence of different microbial species and biofilm homeostasis, which outcompete the mutual antagonistic effects (Huang et al, 2011) Bacteria achieve this through cooperation, forming a community in which all species are located closely together. A. actinomycetemcomitans have developed responses against H2O2 by secreting catalase (KatA) and Dispersin B (DspB) that detoxifies H2O2 and assists bacteria to escape from damage, respectively, which suggests an adaptive mechanism to counteract disruptions by toxic compounds (Stacy et al, 2014)
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