Biofilm formation is intrinsic to the origin of life

Abstract

Biofilm formation the built up of multicellular, often surface-associated, communities of autonomous cells, is the natural mode of growth of most microorganisms living on this planet today. Their tolerance against multiple environmental stresses makes biofilms refractory towards antimicrobial treatment strategies and the actions of the immune system. But how did biofilm formation arise? Here, I argue that the origin of the biofilm lifestyle has its foundation already in the fundamental energy preserving mechanisms that enabled the development of life on earth. Subsequently, prototypical biofilm formation has diversified concomitantly in composition and regulation with the expansion of prokaryotic organisms and their radiation by occupation of diverse ecological niches. This ancient origin of biofilm formation thus indicates that harnessing conditions have been the rule rather than the exception in microbial life, while upon the emergence of the association of microbes with higher organisms including the recent human pathogens, although being in a nutritional and stress-protecting heaven, some of these basic mechanisms of biofilm formation have been surprisingly conserved to promote sustained survival in new environments.

Polyhexamethylene biguanide promotes adaptive cross-resistance to gentamicin in Escherichia coli biofilms

“…Numerous studies have examined the impact of biocide on AMR using planktonic bacteria, the most common lifestyle studied in laboratories. However, it is important to recognize that bacteria predominantly live in surface-associated communities, commonly known as biofilms (Römling, 2023). Biofilms represent intricate three-dimensional structures formed by bacterial communities, embedded within a self-produced extracellular matrix.…”