A Review on Biofilms

Abstract

Formation of biofilm is the unusual way of survival for microbes forming the biofilm; pathogenic microbes increase their survival rate by showing resistance to the various antimicrobial therapy as well to other destroying agent. Establishment of biofilm vary from living to non-living surface that also includes the medical device and health care setting. Majority of the hospital born infection are due to the biofilm this occur due persistence of the biofilm on the medical device that lead to the spread of the infection among the patients. The biofilm also try to destroy the innate immunity of the host to which it cause infection. This review article describes the process of formation and the composition of biofilm. In most bacteria, formation of biofilm seems to happen in response to specific environmental stimulus and results in, formation or termination of biofilm matrix via the secondary messenger molecule c-di-GMP. In between formation and termination of biofilm development we have determined biofilm stages, but the currently available data seems to indicate that these transformations are usually monitored not by specific genetic machinery but by adaptive responses. The formation of biofilm can occur by multiple pathways. The structure of the biofilms is specific to a particular species as well as dependent on environmental and physiological conditions. Various subgroups of bacteria e.g., motile and non-motile bacteria can interact during biofilm formation, and this type of interactions during the formation can affect biofilm constitution.