7 October 2021

New publication in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes

Biofilm, Social interaction, Microbiology

Here, we test the maintenance of plasmids in biofilms and planktonic environments and evaluate how spatio-temporal dynamics influence plasmid loss.

Biofilms can act as plasmid reserves in the absence of plasmid specific selection

Henriette Lyng Røder, Urvish Trivedi, Jakob Russel, Kasper Nørskov Kragh, Jakob Herschend, Ida Thalsø-Madsen, Tim Tolker-Nielsen, Thomas Bjarnsholt, Mette Burmølle and Jonas Stenløkke Madsen.

New article in npj Biofilms and Microbiomes from Section of Microbiology

npj Biofilms and Microbiomes (2021) 7:78 ; https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-021-00249-w 

ABSTRACT

Confocal microscopy of biofilmPlasmids facilitate rapid bacterial adaptation by shuttling a wide variety of beneficial traits across microbial communities. However, under non-selective conditions, maintaining a plasmid can be costly to the host cell. Nonetheless, plasmids are ubiquitous in nature where bacteria adopt their dominant mode of life - biofilms. Here, we demonstrate that biofilms can act as spatiotemporal reserves for plasmids, allowing them to persist even under non-selective conditions. However, under these conditions, spatial stratification of plasmid-carrying cells may promote the dispersal of cells without plasmids, and biofilms may thus act as plasmid sinks.

Follow the link til read the full article and see the author affiliations: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41522-021-00249-w 

To read the Danish press release HERE.