‘Synbiofilm’- A Friendly Microbial Association in Aquatic Ecosystem

Abstract

‘Biofilm’ is a multi-community microbial association living on submerged substrates. Using the online search engine www.OJOSE.com to identify the 100 most recent journal articles, we found that the term ‘biofilm’ had been extensively used by journals from medical/pathological disciplines to mean virulent microbial associations in the human body. The question is, whether natural aquatic biofilms different from these virulent ones? Should we hold a separate view regarding natural aquatic biofilms? Ecological journals use ‘periphyton’ to address similar microbial associations living on submerged substrates. We have discussed the development of biofilm in water and emphasized that natural biofilm is a totally heterogeneous interdependent balanced ecological aggregation of different microbial organisms where ‘periphyton’ occupies an advanced successional form. Contrary to the pathogenic biofilms, natural biofilms from undisturbed aquatic ecosystems are exclusively ‘synbiotic’ in their mode of survival. We therefore propose the term ‘synbiofilm’ to maintain a classical distinction between natural aquatic biofilm and pathogenic biofilms.