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For the inactivation or removal of bacterial biofilms via chemical or physical processes, it is crucial to sufficiently wet the biofilm surface. However, many bacterial biofilms efficiently resist wetting by water, oil or even organic solvents. Here, we demonstrate how exposing the surface of mature biofilm colonies to concentrated ethanol, saline or glucose solutions results in topographical changes that enable their wettability.
In both physics and biology, finding appropriate descriptions for complex systems is a challenge. In part, this difficulty arises from a hierarchy of description levels that one uses to order the world around us [1]. For example, certain atoms build molecules which interact to build the intracellular machinery, which in turn drive the cells within organs, that are the building blocks of human bodies and so on.
Bacterial communities form biofilms on a wide range of surfaces by synthesizing a cohesive and protective extracellular matrix. The morphology, internal structure and mechanical stability of a biofilm are largely determined by its constituent polymers. In addition to mediating adhesion to surfaces, biofilms control the uptake of molecules and regulate the permeability of the matrix to gases and chemicals.
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