Beyenal Haluk, Lewandowski Zbigniew, Harkin Gary
Center for Biofilm Engineering, Montana State University, Bozeman, MT 59717, USA.
Biofouling. 2004 Feb;20(1):1-23. doi: 10.1080/0892701042000191628.
There is no doubt among biofilm researchers that biofilm structure is important to many biofilm processes, such as the transport of nutrients to deeper layers of the biofilm. However, biofilm structure is an elusive term understood only qualitatively, and as such it cannot be directly correlated with any measurable parameters characterizing biofilm performance. To correlate biofilm structure with the parameters characterizing biofilm performance, such as the rate of nutrient transport within the space occupied by the biofilms, biofilm structure must first be quantified and expressed numerically on an appropriate scale. The task of extracting numerical parameters quantifying biofilm structure relies on using biofilm imaging and image analysis. Although defining parameters characterizing biofilm structure is relatively straightforward, and multiple parameters have been described in the computer science literature, interpreting the results of such analyses is not trivial. Existing computer software developed by several research groups, including ours, for the sole purpose of analyzing biofilm images helps quantify parameters from biofilm images but does nothing to help interpret the results of such analyses. Although computing structural parameters from biofilm images permits correlating biofilm structure with other biofilm processes, the meaning of the results is not obvious. The first step to understanding the quantification of biofilm structure, developing image analysis, methods to quantify information from biofilm images, has been made by several research groups. The next step is to explain the meaning of these analyses. This presentation explains the meaning of several parameters commonly used to characterize biofilm structure. It also reviews the authors' research and experience in quantifying biofilm structure and their attempts to quantitatively relate biofilm structure to fundamental biofilm processes.
生物膜研究人员一致认为，生物膜结构对许多生物膜过程都很重要，比如营养物质向生物膜更深层的运输。然而，生物膜结构是一个难以捉摸的术语，目前仅能从定性角度理解，因此它无法直接与任何表征生物膜性能的可测量参数相关联。为了将生物膜结构与表征生物膜性能的参数相关联，比如生物膜所占空间内营养物质的运输速率，首先必须对生物膜结构进行量化，并在适当的尺度上以数值形式表示。提取量化生物膜结构的数值参数的任务依赖于生物膜成像和图像分析。虽然定义表征生物膜结构的参数相对简单，并且计算机科学文献中已经描述了多个参数，但解释此类分析的结果并非易事。包括我们小组在内的几个研究小组开发的现有计算机软件，其唯一目的是分析生物膜图像，有助于从生物膜图像中量化参数，但无助于解释此类分析的结果。虽然从生物膜图像计算结构参数可以将生物膜结构与其他生物膜过程相关联，但结果的含义并不明显。几个研究小组已经迈出了理解生物膜结构量化的第一步，即开发图像分析方法来量化生物膜图像中的信息。下一步是解释这些分析的含义。本报告解释了常用于表征生物膜结构的几个参数的含义。它还回顾了作者在量化生物膜结构方面的研究和经验，以及他们试图将生物膜结构与基本生物膜过程进行定量关联的尝试。
