Features of Films

Living in a tight-knit community can provide safety and support. Bacteria find this too, and huddle together to form dense biofilms, which increase their survival and infectious potency. These films are glued together by a sugary slime called exopolysaccharides, without which the structure begins to fall apart. A new study has revealed a key factor in the production of this material in cholera biofilms (Vibrio exopolysaccharide, VPS). By adjusting the amount to which a particular enzyme attaches to and removes phosphate (dephosphorylation), the researchers changed the structural integrity of the biofilms (pictured, in several experiments). The production of VPS was directly regulated by the phosphorylation status, revealing a potential weakness that treatments could target to help prevent cholera settling in. Furthermore, these systems are similar among many bacteria that produce equivalent biofilms, meaning the insights could help tackle a wide range of diseases.

Written by Anthony Lewis

Anthony Lewis

Writer

Ant was the web editor in the early days of BPoD, and has since worked with the UK’s top science organisations as a writer and multimedia producer. He now splits his time between freelance work and managing multimedia at The Lancet.

Website

• Image from work by Carmen Schwechheimer and colleagues
• University of California—Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA, USA
• Image originally published with a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0)
• Published in PLOS Pathogens, August 2020