Abstract
The ecological and medical significance of bacterial biofilms have been well recognized. Biofilms are harder to control than their planktonic free-living counterparts and quite recently, the focus of the study has shifted to the multispecies consortia, which represent the vast majority of real-case infection scenarios. Studies have begun to explore the complex interspecies interactions within these biofilms. However, only little attention is currently given to the role of cellular metabolites in the cell-to-cell communication. The concentration gradients of metabolic substrates and products affect the spatial growth of bacteria in multispecies biofilm. This, if looked into more deeply, can lead to identification of potential therapies targeting the specific metabolites and hence the coordinated protection in the bacterial community. Herein, we review the interspecies communications, including their metabolic cross-talking, in multispecies biofilm, to signify the importance of such interactions on the initial formation and subsequent growth of these biofilms. Multispecies biofilms with their species heterogeneity are more resilient to antimicrobial agents than their single species biofilm counterparts and this characteristic is of particular interest when dealing with pathogenic bacteria. In this Review, we also discuss the treatment options available, to include current and emerging avenues to combat pathogenic multispecies biofilms in the clinical, environmental, as well as industrial settings.
Highlights
Bacteria typically live in complex biological communities, known as biofilms; which dominate all habitats on the surface of the Earth, except the oceans, where 20–80% of bacterial cells exist as biofilms (Hall et al, 2014; Flemming and Wuertz, 2019)
We discuss important recent literatures to showcase our current understanding of the interspecies interactions in a multispecies biofilm
The treatment outcome from a multispecies biofilm with complex cross-species interactions would be different from a monospecies biofilm, highlighting the need to incorporate these interactions while designing our treatment strategies
Summary
Bacteria typically live in complex biological communities, known as biofilms; which dominate all habitats on the surface of the Earth, except the oceans, where 20–80% of bacterial cells exist as biofilms (Hall et al, 2014; Flemming and Wuertz, 2019). Biofilms are often comprised of multiple microbial species, each carrying its own unique features, imparting certain evolved and unique functions that are not present in their mono-species counterparts (Flemming et al, 2016). Such biofilms, referred to as the multispecies biofilms, are commonly found on a wide range of medical devices and are associated with a significant amount of human bacterial infections, posing a serious human health concern and economic burden to the health-care systems (Bryers, 2008; Hall et al, 2014; Kvich et al, 2020)
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