Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Biofilms and quorum sensing disruption
Further to Tuesday's brief discussion of biofilms and their effect on urban water supply networks, I came across the publication Biophysical controls on community succession in stream biofilms (citation). For those wanting more info on biofilms, this article (citation) is dated but a good read. (L. Sly is still at UQ, and I'm sure would answer any questions on biofilms, water quality and the SEQ supply network.)
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Thanks Tomas.
ReplyDeleteExplaining biofilms involves a more complex and interesting tangle of biology and physics than I thought!
In case I'm not the only one for whom this is new information, the second article above describes the velocity of water flowing through a pipe affecting a biofilm on that pipe's walls through a biological process. A change in velocity correlates with a dramatic change in the behaviour of microorganisms in the biofilm.
Glad somebody else finds this interesting! And your above is a good concept point for Ch 5.
ReplyDeleteWalking past the lakes on campus each day has now made me more interested in high-Re regimes for systems other than pipes or rivers. Recent rainfall/run-off has broken up the film on the lake closest to the Union area, but previous downpours haven't had much visible effect. I'd like to conduct some experiments, but I don't think I'd be allowed...
Depends. What experiments were you thinking of conducting?
ReplyDeleteHooray for concept points! I tried to connect this to the flagella colloquium Kristen advertised. Tomas, what do you think?
ReplyDelete