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Unravelling interspecies interactions across heterogeneities in complex biofilm communities
Author(s) -
Røder Henriette L.,
Olsen Nanna M. C.,
Whiteley Marvin,
Burmølle Mette
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
environmental microbiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.954
H-Index - 188
eISSN - 1462-2920
pISSN - 1462-2912
DOI - 10.1111/1462-2920.14834
Subject(s) - biology , biofilm , scale (ratio) , ecology , data science , biochemical engineering , computational biology , computer science , cartography , genetics , bacteria , engineering , geography
Summary The importance of microbial biofilms has been well‐recognized for several decades, and focus is now shifting towards investigating multispecies biofilm communities rather than mono‐ or dual‐species biofilms. Therefore, the demand for techniques that provide a sufficient amount of information at adequate resolution is increasing. One major challenge for multispecies studies is that diversity and spatial organization often lead to a high degree of spatial and chemical heterogeneity. Many current approaches do not account for such heterogeneity and therefore only provide average information (−omics techniques in particular), which could obscure important information about the community. Here, we bring attention to the issues of heterogeneity when analysing synthetic multi‐species biofilms, in vitro , and the importance of multi‐scale approaches. We provide an overview of current and newer approaches that can be applied to biofilm communities, in order to elucidate interactions at the appropriate scale.