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The role of flow in bacterial biofilm morphology and wetting properties

2020; Elsevier BV; Volume: 192; Linguagem: Inglês

10.1016/j.colsurfb.2020.111047

1873-4367

Federica Recupido, Giuseppe Toscano, Rosarita Tatè, Maria Petala, Sergio Caserta, Thodoris D. Karapantsios, Stefano Guido,

Polymer Surface Interaction Studies

Biofilms are bacterial communities embedded in an extracellular matrix, able to adhere to surfaces. Different experimental set-ups are widely used for in vitro biofilm cultivation; however, a well-defined comparison among different culture conditions, especially suited to interfacial characterization, is still lacking in the literature. The main objective of this work is to study the role of flow on biofilm formation, morphology and interfacial properties. Three different in vitro setups, corresponding to stagnant, shaking, and laminar flow conditions (custom-made flow cell), are used in this work to grow single strain biofilms of Pseudomonas fluorescens AR 11 on glass coupons. Results show that flow conditions significantly influenced biofilm formation kinetics, affecting mass transfer and cell attachment/detachment processes. Distinct morphological patterns are found under different flow regimes. Static contact angle data do not depend significantly on biofilm growth conditions in the parametric range investigated in this work.