Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • News & Views
  • Published:

Biofilms strike back

Nature Biotechnology volume 23, pages 1378–1379 (2005)Cite this article

Sublethal concentrations of antibiotics increase bacterial drug tolerance by promoting biofilm formation.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Relevant articles

Open Access articles citing this article.

Access options

Buy this article

  • Purchase on Springer Link
  • Instant access to full article PDF
Buy now

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Figure 1: Biofilm formation as a stress response.

Bob Crimi

References

  1. Hoffman, L.R. et al. Aminoglycoside antibiotics induce bacterial biofilm formation. Nature 436, 1171–1175 (2005).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Costerton, J.W., Stewart, P.S. & Greenberg, E.P. Bacterial biofilms: a common cause of persistent infections. Science 284, 1318–1322 (1999).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  3. Rachid, S., Ohlsen, K., Witte, W., Hacker, J. & Ziebuhr, W. Effect of subinhibitory antibiotic concentrations on polysaccharide intercellular adhesin expression in biofilm-forming Staphylococcus epidermidis. Antimicrob. Agents Chemother. 44, 3357–3363 (2000).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  4. Jenal, U. Cyclic di-guanosine-monophosphate comes of age: a novel secondary messenger involved in modulating cell surface structures in bacteria? Curr. Opin. Microbiol. 7, 185–191 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  5. Ross, P., Mayer, R. & Benziman, M. Cellulose biosynthesis and function in bacteria. Microbiol. Rev. 55, 35–58 (1991).

    CAS  PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  6. Jacobs, M.A. et al. Comprehensive transposon mutant library of Pseudomonas aeruginosa. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 100, 14339–14344 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Drenkard, E. & Ausubel, F.M. Pseudomonas biofilm formation and antibiotic resistance are linked to phenotypic variation. Nature 416, 740–743 (2002).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Friedman, L. & Kolter, R. Two genetic loci produce distinct carbohydrate-rich structural components of the Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm matrix. J. Bacteriol. 186, 4457–4465 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  9. Matsukawa, M. & Greenberg, E.P. Putative exopolysaccharide synthesis genes influence Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm development. J. Bacteriol. 186, 4449–4456 (2004).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Mah, T.F. et al. A genetic basis for Pseudomonas aeruginosa biofilm antibiotic resistance. Nature 426, 306–310 (2003).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Microbiology and Immunology, Dartmouth Medical School, 505 Vail Building, North College Street, Hanover, 03755, New Hampshire, USA

    George A O'Toole

  2. Center for Biofilm Engineering and Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering, Montana State University, 366 EPS Building, Bozeman, 59717, Montana, USA

    Philip S Stewart

Authors
  1. George A O'Toole
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Philip S Stewart
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

O'Toole, G., Stewart, P. Biofilms strike back. Nat Biotechnol 23, 1378–1379 (2005). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1105-1378

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt1105-1378

This article is cited by

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing