Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering (SCELSE), Nanyang Technological University Singapore, 60 Nanyang Drive, Singapore, 637551, Singapore.
University of Duisburg-Essen, Biofilm Centre, Universitätsstrasse 5, 45131, Essen, Germany.
NPJ Biofilms Microbiomes. 2021 Jan 27;7(1):10. doi: 10.1038/s41522-020-00183-3.
Sessile microorganisms were described as early as the seventeenth century. However, the term biofilm arose only in the 1960s in wastewater treatment research and was adopted later in marine fouling and in medical and dental microbiology. The sessile mode of microbial life was gradually recognized to be predominant on Earth, and the term biofilm became established for the growth of microorganisms in aggregates, frequently associated with interfaces, although many, if not the majority, of them not being continuous "films" in the strict sense. In this sessile form of life, microorganisms live in close proximity in a matrix of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS). They share emerging properties, clearly distinct from solitary free floating planktonic microbial cells. Common characteristics include the formation of synergistic microconsortia, using the EPS matrix as an external digestion system, the formation of gradients and high biodiversity over microscopically small distances, resource capture and retention, facilitated gene exchange as well as intercellular communication, and enhanced tolerance to antimicrobials. Thus, biofilms belong to the class of collective systems in biology, like forests, beehives, or coral reefs, although the term film addresses only one form of the various manifestations of microbial aggregates. The uncertainty of this term is discussed, and it is acknowledged that it will not likely be replaced soon, but it is recommended to understand these communities in the broader sense of microbial aggregates.
早在 17 世纪就有人描述过固着微生物。然而，生物膜一词直到 20 世纪 60 年代才在废水处理研究中出现，后来在海洋污垢和医学及牙科微生物学中也被采用。微生物的固着生活方式逐渐被认为在地球上占主导地位，生物膜一词也被确立为微生物在聚集物中的生长方式，尽管其中许多（如果不是大多数）并非严格意义上的连续“膜”，而是与界面经常相关的聚集物。在这种固着的生活形式中，微生物在细胞外聚合物（EPS）基质中近距离生活。它们具有明显不同于单独自由漂浮浮游微生物细胞的新兴特性。共同特征包括形成协同微群落，利用 EPS 基质作为外部消化系统，在微观上小距离内形成梯度和高生物多样性，捕获和保留资源，促进基因交换以及细胞间通讯，并增强对抗生素的耐受性。因此，生物膜属于生物学中的集体系统类，如森林、蜂巢或珊瑚礁，尽管“膜”一词仅涉及微生物聚集物的各种表现形式之一。本文讨论了这个术语的不确定性，并承认它不太可能很快被取代，但建议从微生物聚集物的更广泛意义上来理解这些群落。
