Extracellular polymeric substances of biofilms: Suffering from an identity crisis.

Seviour T; Derlon N; Dueholm MS; Flemming HC; Girbal-Neuhauser E; Horn H; Kjelleberg S; van Loosdrecht MCM; Lotti T; Malpei MF; Nerenberg R; Neu TR; Paul E; Yu H; Lin Y

doi:10.1016/j.watres.2018.11.020

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Journal article

Extracellular polymeric substances of biofilms: Suffering from an identity crisis.

Seviour T Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637551, Singapore. Electronic address: twseviour@ntu.edu.sg.
Derlon N EAWAG, Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology, Department of Process Engineering, CH-8600, Dübendorf, Switzerland.
Dueholm MS Center for Microbial Communities, Department of Chemistry and Bioscience, Aalborg University, Aalborg, Denmark.
Flemming HC Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637551, Singapore; University of Duisburg-Essen, Faculty of Chemistry, Biofilm Centre, Essen, Germany.
Girbal-Neuhauser E Laboratoire de Biotechnologies Agroalimentaire et Environmentale (LBAE), Universite Paul Sabatier, Toulouse, France.
Horn H Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT), Engler-Bunte-Institut, Water Chemistry and Water Technology and DVGW Research Laboratories, Karlsruhe, Germany.
Kjelleberg S Singapore Centre for Environmental Life Sciences Engineering, Nanyang Technological University, 637551, Singapore.
van Loosdrecht MCM Department of Biotechcnology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands.
Lotti T Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering - DICEA, University of Florence, Florence, Italy.
Malpei MF Dipartimento di Ingegneria Civile e Ambientale, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy.
Nerenberg R Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering and Earth Sciences, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, USA.
Neu TR Department of River Ecology, Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research - UFZ, Magdeburg, Germany.
Paul E Laboratoire d'Ingénierie des Systèmes Biologiques et des Procédés, Université de Toulouse, Toulouse, France.
Yu H Department of Chemistry, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, China.
Lin Y Department of Biotechcnology, Delft University of Technology, Delft, the Netherlands. Electronic address: yuemei.lin@tudelft.nl.

2018-12-18

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Water research. - 2019

Extracellular polymeric substances

Extracellular Polymeric Substance Matrix

English Microbial biofilms can be both cause and cure to a range of emerging societal problems including antimicrobial tolerance, water sanitation, water scarcity and pollution. The identities of extracellular polymeric substances (EPS) responsible for the establishment and function of biofilms are poorly understood. The lack of information on the chemical and physical identities of EPS limits the potential to rationally engineer biofilm processes, and impedes progress within the water and wastewater sector towards a circular economy and resource recovery. Here, a multidisciplinary roadmap for addressing this EPS identity crisis is proposed. This involves improved EPS extraction and characterization methodologies, cross-referencing between model biofilms and full-scale biofilm systems, and functional description of isolated EPS with in situ techniques (e.g. microscopy) coupled with genomics, proteomics and glycomics. The current extraction and spectrophotometric characterization methods, often based on the principle not to compromise the integrity of the microbial cells, should be critically assessed, and more comprehensive methods for recovery and characterization of EPS need to be developed.

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