Quorum Sensing Control of Bacterial Biofilm Formation and Dispersal

生物膜是在固体表面形成的细菌群落，是地球上细菌生命的主要形式。生物膜对环境、工业和医学至关重要。生物膜可能是有益的，例如在微生物组和生物修复中，但生物膜也可能是有害的，例如在感染期间，因为生物膜污染许多类型的表面。生物膜扩散对于细菌传播和疾病传播至关重要，但对这一重要过程知之甚少。该项目的目的之一是确定协调生物膜扩散的机制。该项目的另一个目的是确定细菌细胞之间的通信如何帮助维持生物膜。探索细菌在驱动生物膜形成和扩散中的作用也将是这项工作的重点 这项工作将通过揭示为细菌生物膜提供弹性的机制来推动科学的进步，并揭示生物膜的脆弱性。高素质的学生将通过这个项目的工作进行培训。努力增加参与科学研究的人的多样性，努力扩大公众对科学的了解，这是该项目的核心，将通过各种全国性的科学推广工作来实现。以及使细菌能够建立并随后分解多细胞生物膜群落的信号转导网络。探索生物膜在驱动生物膜形成和扩散中的作用将是一个焦点。这些研究将跨越生物学尺度-从分子到蛋白质，到网络，到细胞，再到社区。在基础科学水平上，这项工作将定义细菌用于独特地检测和响应社区中亲属和非亲属的机制，基因和机制如何相互作用以驱动社区形态，以及域间相互作用如何影响多细胞社区动态。在实践层面上，这些调查可能会导致合成策略来操纵生物膜的形成和传播，群体感应介导的通信，和噬菌体感染的细菌。因此，研究结果应该揭示支持性状进化和维持的原则，这些性状在实验室条件下不是必需的，但在自然界中是至关重要和精确调控的。掌握了这些知识，该领域应该能够迅速向前发展，以制定综合战略，以防止或促进群体感应，防止或促进单一物种和混合物种的生物膜形成，并防止或促进生物膜扩散，根据需要。这些应用将具有工业、农业和医疗相关性。PI作为系主任，教师，编辑，广泛参与国家教育和推广活动，并通过她对非营利基金会和政府资助机构的服务，积极参与服务。该奖项反映了NSF的法定使命，并通过使用基金会的知识价值和更广泛的影响审查标准进行评估，被认为值得支持。

Biofilms, bacterial communities formed on solid surfaces, are a predominant form of bacterial life on Earth. Biofilms are crucial for the environment, industry, and medicine. Biofilms can be beneficial, for example in the microbiome and in bioremediation, but biofilms can also be harmful, for example during infection and because biofilms foul many types of surfaces. Biofilm dispersal is crucial for bacterial spread and for disease transmission, but very little is known about this important process. One aim of this project is to determine the mechanisms that coordinate biofilm dispersal. Another aim of this project is to determine how communication between bacterial cells helps maintain biofilms. An exploration of the role of phages in driving biofilm formation and dispersal will also be a focus of this work This work will advance the progress of science by revealing the mechanisms that provide bacterial biofilms their resilience and they will reveal biofilm vulnerabilities. Highly talented students will be trained by working on this project. Efforts to increase diversity among those who participate in science research and efforts to expand public access/public understanding of science are central to the project and will be accomplished through a variety of nation-wide science outreach efforts.The overall goals of this research are to explore the mechanics, spatial and temporal cell-cell communication processes, and signal transduction networks that enable bacteria to build and subsequently disassemble multicellular biofilm communities. An exploration of the role of phages in driving biofilm formation and dispersal will be a focus. The studies will span biological scales - from the molecule, to the protein, to the network, to the cell, to the community. At a basic science level, the work will define the mechanisms bacteria use to uniquely detect and respond to kin and non-kin in communities, how genes and mechanics interact to drive community morphology, and how inter-domain interactions influence multicellular community dynamics. At a practical level, these investigations could lead to synthetic strategies to manipulate biofilm formation and dispersal, quorum-sensing-mediated communication, and phage infection of bacteria. Consequently, the results should reveal the principles underpinning the evolution and maintenance of traits that are not essential under laboratory conditions but are crucial and precisely regulated in nature. With this knowledge in hand, the field should be able to rapidly move forward to develop synthetic strategies to prevent or promote quorum sensing, to prevent or promote single-species and mixed-species biofilm formation, and to prevent or promote biofilm dispersal, as required. Such applications will have industrial, agricultural, and medical relevance. The PI is highly involved in service as Chair of Department, as a teacher, as an editor, broadly in national educational and outreach initiatives, and through her service to not-for-profit foundations and government funding agencies.This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.