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Comment
. 2023 Feb 7;120(6):e2221624120.
doi: 10.1073/pnas.2221624120. Epub 2023 Feb 2.

Community outcomes depend on cooperative biofilm structure

Thomas G Platt  1
Affiliations
Comment

Community outcomes depend on cooperative biofilm structure

Thomas G Platt. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. .
No abstract available

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Conflict of interest statement

The author declares no competing interest.

Figures

Fig. 1.
Fig. 1.
Wucher et al. (7) demonstrate that cell spacing during the early stages of biofilm formation determines the structure and community dynamics of multispecies biofilms. (A) When alone, V. cholerae cells (red) establish highly ordered biofilms wherein cells within the densely packed core (indicated by the dashed blue circle) are protected from predation by Bdellovibrio bacteriovorus cells (blue). (B) Biofilms established by Escherichia coli cells (yellow) are generally less ordered, lack this dense cell packing, and consequently are vulnerable to B. bacteriovorus predation—with few cells surviving the predator. (C) When V. cholerae and E. coli cells are sufficiently spaced during the early stages of biofilm formation, the resultant multispecies biofilms resemble V. cholerae's clonal biofilms with cells of both species shielded from predation within densely packed central regions and can survive within tightly packed cluster of cells. (D) However, when cells of the two species are close to each other during the early stages of biofilm formation, the presence of the E. coli cells disrupts the establishment of this protective biofilm architecture and cells of both species experience heavy predation.
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