Bacterial fortresses: cooperation and competition for space in biofilms
Event details
| Date | 09.05.2017 |
| Hour | 12:15 |
| Speaker | Carey Nadell, Max Planck Institute for Terrestrial Microbiology, Marburg, Germany |
| Location | |
| Category | Conferences - Seminars |
Given the opportunity, many bacterial species colonize surfaces and produce intricate multicellular communities, termed biofilms. These cell groups are embedded in a secreted polymer matrix that confers nutrient-scavenging versatility and resistance to external threats. Biofilm growth is a central feature of microbial natural history and bacteria-human interactions, but we are still in the early stages of discovering ecological principles of biofilm assembly. I use concepts and techniques from ecology, evolutionary biology, and molecular genetics to understand how and why biofilms obtain their structure and composition. Here I will relate several projects linking the secreted matrix to cooperation, competition, and succession in populations of bacterial pathogens. I will also discuss a new system for visualizing the spatial spread of bacterial viruses through biofilms. This framework promises novel insight into bacteria-bacteriophage coevolution and the development of new microbial manipulation strategies.
Practical information
- Informed public
- Free
Organizer
- Alexandre Persat