Unravelling interspecies interactions across heterogeneities in complex biofilm communities
Research output: Contribution to journal › Review › Research › peer-review
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.
Original language | English |
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Journal | Environmental Microbiology |
Volume | 22 |
Issue number | 1 |
Pages (from-to) | 5-16 |
Number of pages | 12 |
ISSN | 1462-2912 |
DOIs | |
Publication status | Published - 2020 |
ID: 230141621