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Digging deeper in the biofilm

Nature Reviews Microbiology volume 19, page 484 (2021)Cite this article

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This month’s Under the Lens discusses the application of the quantitative image analysis software BiofilmQ to understand antibiotic-induced changes in Vibrio cholerae biofilms at single-cell resolution.

As unicellular organisms, bacteria can be vulnerable to changes in their environment. By forming multicellular communities in biofilms, bacteria can greatly increase their tolerance to stress conditions such as exposure to antibiotics. However, studies of these population-level responses typically lack information about the behaviour of individual cells in a biofilm. BiofilmQ1, an automated image cytometry software tool, enables quantitative analysis of biofilm properties in 3D over time, at single-cell resolution. With the application of this software, Díaz-Pascual et al.2 elucidated the spatio-temporal response of Vibrio cholerae biofilms, by characterizing the previously inaccessible internal structural changes under antibiotic treatment.

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References

  1. Hartmann, R. et al. Quantitative image analysis of microbial communities with BiofilmQ. Nat. Microbiol. 6, 151–156 (2021).

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  2. Díaz-Pascual, F. et al. Breakdown of Vibrio cholerae biofilm architecture induced by antibiotics disrupts community barrier function. Nat. Microbiol. 4, 2136–2145 (2019).

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  1. Department of Biochemistry, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK

    Divya Choudhary & Chloé J. Cassaro

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  1. Divya Choudhary
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  2. Chloé J. Cassaro
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Correspondence to Divya Choudhary or Chloé J. Cassaro.

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Choudhary, D., Cassaro, C.J. Digging deeper in the biofilm. Nat Rev Microbiol 19, 484 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00584-x

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41579-021-00584-x

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