New insights in the early extracellular events in hydrocarbon and lipid biodegradation.

Abstract

In a recent article in EMI, Ennouri et al. (2016) characterized the extracellular matrix of the biofilm formed by Marinobacter hydrocarbonoclasticus SP17 growing at the n-alkane-water interface. They convincingly showed that in M. hydrocarbonoclasticus the biofilm matrix was largely composed of secreted proteins, which were essential not only for biofilm development and for the maintenance of its structure but also for growth of the strain on n-alkanes and hydrophobic organic compounds such as triglycerides. Although the role of the biofilm proteins detected was still far from being solved, altogether that study opened up new promising possibilities in the analysis of the role of proteins in biofilm formation linked to hydrocarbon/lipid biodegradation. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.