O'Toole G, Kaplan H B, Kolter R
Department of Microbiology, Dartmouth Medical School, Hanover, New Hampshire 03755, USA.
Annu Rev Microbiol. 2000;54:49-79. doi: 10.1146/annurev.micro.54.1.49.
Biofilms can be defined as communities of microorganisms attached to a surface. It is clear that microorganisms undergo profound changes during their transition from planktonic (free-swimming) organisms to cells that are part of a complex, surface-attached community. These changes are reflected in the new phenotypic characteristics developed by biofilm bacteria and occur in response to a variety of environmental signals. Recent genetic and molecular approaches used to study bacterial and fungal biofilms have identified genes and regulatory circuits important for initial cell-surface interactions, biofilm maturation, and the return of biofilm microorganisms to a planktonic mode of growth. Studies to date suggest that the planktonic-biofilm transition is a complex and highly regulated process. The results reviewed in this article indicate that the formation of biofilms serves as a new model system for the study of microbial development.
生物膜可定义为附着于表面的微生物群落。很明显，微生物从浮游（自由游动）生物体转变为复杂的、附着于表面的群落中的细胞时会经历深刻变化。这些变化反映在生物膜细菌所展现出的新表型特征中，并且是对多种环境信号的响应。最近用于研究细菌和真菌生物膜的遗传和分子方法已经鉴定出对初始细胞 - 表面相互作用、生物膜成熟以及生物膜微生物恢复到浮游生长模式至关重要的基因和调控回路。迄今为止的研究表明，浮游 - 生物膜转变是一个复杂且高度受调控的过程。本文所综述的结果表明，生物膜的形成作为一种新的模型系统用于微生物发育的研究。
