Biofilm

Marine Biofilm Induction and inhibition of invertebrate settlement

Almost all submerged surface in the marine environment, such as marine water in polar, temperate, and tropical, are covered with thin microbial biofilms. Marine biofilm possess specific role in inducting and inhibiting the settlement of the invertebrate larvae in the marine. In this essay, the formation of this biofilm, typical species present in the biofilm, the major characteristic of this biofilm, advantage for microbes living in biofilms and method for collecting and characterizing biofilm will be described in the following paragraphs.

Biofilms can be simply defined as communities of microorganism, are matrix-enclosed, adherent to each other and/or to surface. In addition, biofilms can comprise a single microbial species or multiple microbial species and can form on a range of biotic and abiotic surfaces. The formation of the bacterial biofilm involves five stages:

Stage 1: Initial attachment of cells to the surface

Biofilm formation is started to begin when bacteria sense environmental conditions that trigger the transition to life on a surface. These environmental conditions include the nutrition availability in the ambient environment, and other environmental cues such as temperature, osmolarity, pH, iron, and oxygen. Moreover, the adsorptions of the organic molecules on the surface form conditioning films on the surface. These conditions films alter the physico-chemical condition of the surface, e.g. the charge and free energy of the surface, and act as concentrated energy substrates for attaching microbial flora. Furthermore, movement of microorganisms toward the surfaces may result from gravity, water flow, the organism’s motility (i.e. the planktonic state of the bacteria) and chemotaxis, or a combination of these processes. After the microorganisms are on the surface, they are subjected to various attraction and repulsion forces. The microorganisms may adhere on the surface...