Bacterial biof ilm breakdown

摘要

A compound produced by certain bacteria can break down biofilms - the tight-knit communities that some bacteria form on surfaces to protect themselves from antimicrobial attack.Researchers in Massachusetts identified the compound, norspermidine, in Bacillus subtilis. Jon Clardy at Harvard Medical School in Boston, Richard Losick at Harvard University in Cambridge and their colleagues found that norspermidine acts in concert with a previously identified nix of amino acids to break down established biofilms of B. subtilis and to prevent biofilm formation in B. subtilis, Escherichia coli and Staphylococcus aureus.